[23] 



Report of the State Entomologist. 



165 



Eumpcea, it seems to have found our native species, Larix Americana, 

 commonly known as the tamarack or hackmatack, particularly 

 adapted to its tastes, as shown in the havoc which it inflicts in the 

 tamarack swamps of New York and New England. 



The insect is illustrated in Fig. 4 For details of life-history, and 

 its description, reference may be made to the writings of Dr. Packard 

 in the reports of the Commissioner of Agriculture, above cited. For 



Fig. 4.— The larch saw-fly, Nematus Eeichsonh, in natural size and enlarged, and the 

 larch worm of different ages, in natural size. (From Packard.) 



the present it will suffice to say that the parent saw-fly emerging 

 from her cocoon in the month of May, probably not long thereafter 

 resorts to the larches and inserts its oval, cylindrical eggs, according 

 to Dr. Packard, in two rows of incisions in the tei-minal shoot or one 

 of the side shoots, causing a twisting and deformity therein from the 

 presence and growth of the eggs. The larvrc, hatching in June, 

 mature raj^idly, " in from five to seven days, or not more than ten," 

 when they descend from the trees and inclose themselves within their 

 elongate oval cocoons beneath moss or other convenient shelter. 

 This occurs the last of June or in early July, in New York. They 

 remain unchanged within the cocoon during the winter and assume 

 the pupal form the following spring, as is the habit of many of the 

 TenthredinidcB. 



