PINE SAW-FLIES. 759 



80. Lophyrns pinetum Norton. 



Besides the species of Lophyrus above mentioneil, there are four other 

 species of this genus, which probably live ou oouiferous trees, and also 

 the following species known to infest the pine : Lophyrus pinetum Nor- 

 tou, female, with uiueteen auteunal joints, on pine (Norton in Packard's 

 Guide, p. 226). 



81. The pitch-pine saw-fly. 



Lophyrus pim-rigtda' Norton. 



With the general habits and appearance of the preceding species, but so far as yet 

 known confined to the pitch-pine. 



This saw-fly was described by Mr. Norton in our "Guide to the Study 

 of Insects." The larvse are allied to those of Lophyrus abietis, and 

 during one summer ravaged the young pitch-pines, which had been 

 raised from the seed on a plantation at Eastham, Mass., on Cape Cod. 

 The female lays her eggs singly in one side of a "needle" of the pine, 

 though sometimes an egg is inserted on each side of the leaf. 



Female, — Length, 0.30 ; expanse of wings, 0.65 of an inch ; antennae 17-jointed, 

 short, brown; color luteous brown, with a black line joining the ocelli; a black 

 stripe down each of the lobes of the thorax above and the sutures behind; body- 

 paler beneath; the trochanters and base of tie tibise waxen; claws with an inner 

 tooth near the middle ; wings very slightly clouded ; cross nervure of the lanceolate 

 cell straight. 



Male. — Length, 0.25; expanse of wings, 0,55 of an inch; antennae 15-jointed, 

 black, quite short, with twelve branches on each side, those at the base nearly as 

 long as the sixth and seventh ; apical joint simple, enlarged at base ; color of insect 

 black, with the abdomen at apex and beneath yellow-brown ; legs the same color at 

 base ; below the knees whitish. The male looks precisely like that of L. abietis, but 

 the form of the antennae is different, being much shorter. The female looks much 

 like L. abdominalis Say, taken on the pine near New York. (Norton.) 



Mr. W. C. Fish wrote me some years ago from Eastham, Mass., as 

 follows regarding this insect and the attacks upon it by the white- 

 winged crossbill: 



In the fall of 1863 there was a second brood of the larvae of Lophyrxis pini-rigidce 

 Norton. On the 16th of September I noticed a few nearly grown, but the greater 

 part of those seen at that date were very small. On the I5th of October I noticed 

 large flocks of the white-winged crossbill hovering over and alighting upon the 

 young pines that were infested with these larvae. There were certainly three or 

 four hundred birds in some of these flocks. I soon learned that they were feeding 

 upon the larvae, as I had many opportunities to watch them while feeding among 

 the trees. I also took numbers of the larvae from the stomachs of several individuals 

 that I shot. 



I had one in confinement several days, feeding it with these larvae. Those out of 

 doors seemed to discard the head and harder legs of the larvte, but the one in con- 

 finenient swallowed the insect entire. These birds were abundant through Novem- 

 ber and December, and more or less common all winter. Some of the larvae were 

 found quite late in November, after we had experienced severe freezing weather. I 

 saw them frozen stiff several times. 



On the 27th of November I took several into the house, where they spun their 

 cocoons and the saw-flies came out the next spring. So well did the crossbills do 



