PEAR LYDA} SOCIAL PEAR SAWEFLY. 121 
the jar had ever formed cocoons, and those that did seemed all of 
them to be dead.”—(J. B. 8.) 
The experiment is given in minute detail in the Bulletin pre- 
viously referred to, the period from commencement to final examination 
ranging from June 10th to October 6th, and I believe may be of great 
assistance to us in checking attack of this destructive ‘‘Gnat Midge.” 
Pear Lyda; Social Pear Sawfly. Lyda pyri, Schrank; L. clypeata, 
Klug; L. fasciata, Curtis and Westwood ; Pamphilius flaviventris, 
Cameron. 
Lypa pyr1.—Web-nest with caterpillars, after Taschenberg; Sawfly, female, 
magnified, and larva, full size, after Cameron. 
The Pear Lyda, or Social or Web-spinning Pear Sawfly, as this 
species is variously named, is, so far as I am aware, not at all a 
common infestation in this country. I have never had specimens sent 
me until the past season; and in Prof. Westwood’s paper on this 
species, from his own observations made in his garden at Hammer- 
smith,* he mentions his great pleasure in discovering ‘‘ that one of 
the rarest British species of the genus’’ may be obtained in suburban 
gardens. Mr. Cameron notes it as ‘‘ probably common in gardens in 
England,” but that he has not found it in Scotland; and looking 
at the bright shiny orange colour of the many caterpillars feeding 
together in a web several inches in diameter, and the devastation to 
the spun-up leafage, the attack is one to attract so much attention 
from the most unobservant, that it is to be hoped it is not very often 
present. 
* See ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle’ for 1851, No. for January 18th, p. 36. 
