PINE SAW-FLIES. 



755 



silky gray; fore and middle femora and tibiae gray, with coppery reflections, the 

 tibiae banded with white. All the tarsi gray, with whitish tips. 



Expanse. — Female, 18™™. Habitat. — Ithaca, N. Y. Described from two females, one 

 in the collection of the Department of Agriculture, the other in my collection." — 

 (Cometock.) 



AFFECTING THE LEAVES. 

 76. Abbot's white-pine saw-fly. 



Lophyrus abbotii Leach. 



. Order Hymenoptera ; family Tenthredinid^. 



From midsummer until October, and sometimes as late as November, clustering on 

 the twigs and smaller branches of the white pine, soft, smooth-bodied, yellowish- 

 white worms about an inch long, with three, aud posteriorly four, longitudinal rows 

 of large black dorsal spots ; late in the autumn transforming in tough brown pod- 

 like cocoons attached to the twigs, within which they hybernate, changing to pupa 

 (in Illinois) about the middle of May, the fonr-winged fly with broad pectinated 

 antennae appeariug about the 1st of June. (Riley.) 



By far the most destructive insects to the foliage of the pine and fir 

 are the different species of false caterpillars or larvas of the pine saw- 

 fly or Lophyrus. When present at all these larvte exist in colonies, 

 keeping together until they are ready to undergo the chrysalis state ; 

 and after stripping the leaves of one twig or small branch, pass on to 

 adjoining twigs until a large branch or nearly one side of a tree will 

 be denuded of leaves. Such effects we have often seen in isolated pitch- 

 pine trees in the woods of Maine. Still more destructive are these 

 larvfe to plantations of young pines on Cape Cod, where, if not pre- 

 vented, they may strip tree after tree of a young growth of seedling 

 pines. Moreover, an allied species {L. lecontei) is annoying to the orna- 

 mental Austrian pines and 

 Scotch firs on lawns and in 

 shrubberies, so that we have 

 placed these insects at the 

 head of those destructive to 

 the leaves of coniferous trees. 



Mr. W. C. Fish writes me 

 that worms which I have 

 identified as being of this 

 species do "much mischief 

 among the pines on Cape 

 Cod. These pines are small, 

 having been growing but 

 from six to twelve years 

 from seed planted by the 

 farmers in order to renew 

 the soil on their poorer 

 lands. Whole acres of these small pines are (1868) being destroyed 



Fig. 261. — Abbot's white-pine saw-fly ; 1, female, enlarged ; 

 2 and 3, pupa, enlareed ; 4, larvae, natural size : 5, co- 

 coon, n-itural size ; 6, male, 7, female, antenna enlarged. 

 — After Riley. 



