44 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Macrophya nigra, margine collaiis et segmenti abdominalis 

 primi, tibiariim aunulis et coxarum posticavum macula 

 albis. 



If I am not mistaken no larva of the genus Macrophya 

 has, hilherlo, been either described or figured; and, since 

 Harlig wrote ' Die untergattungen Athalia und Macrophya 

 sind in ihrem Larvenstande noch unbekannt,' not a single 

 word has appeared in print respecting the latter genus. It 

 is, therefore, a particular source of pleasure to me that I am 

 able to describe the metamorphoses of one species of the 

 genus, and the more so that I have been watching for the 

 opportunity — with intervals, of course, which, however, were 

 certainly not of my seeking — for more than fifteen years. It 

 was in the year 1844 that my friend Dr. Verloren sent me 

 some larvae from Utrecht, one of which is represented at 

 fig. 3. He had found a large number of them on the common 

 elder (Sambucus nigra). Shortly after I had them they hid 

 themselves in the ground, and died without having undergone 

 any part of their metamorphosis. After this, as I could not 

 find any similar sawfly larva? in my own neighbourhood, 

 I asked Dr. Verloren to send me some more of them from 

 Utrecht, which he did about a year afterwards ; but the 

 result of my endeavour to rear them was the same. I was 

 unwilling to trouble my friend an}' more in the matter; and 

 was thus obliged to wait until, by some good fortune, I 

 should come across similar larvae again. This happened on 

 the 1st of June, 1864, in the evening, when my youngest son 

 pointed out to me a caterpillar on a twig close to an elder- 

 bush in the garden of my house at Leyden. I immediately 

 recognized it as being of the same species as were those I 

 had received from Utrecht twenty years before ; and, con- 

 cluding that the larva in question had merely crept on to the 

 neighbouring shrub by accident, we carefully examined the 

 elder-bush, and found thirty larvae of various sizes, but most 

 of them like the one represented at fig. 3. Some few were of 

 the size of fig. 1 ; others like fig. 2 ; so that they were 

 evidently from eggs laid at different periods. There were two 

 among them which, as ajipeared subsequently, had but one 

 more change of skin to undergo, and were, both as to colour 

 and size, like fig. 4. 



They all had twenty- two legs. The head was sordid 



