122 PEAR. 
On June 25th in the past season I was favoured by Mr. Colvile 
Browne, of 2, Plantation Cottages, Hextable, Kent, with an excellent 
specimen of a web-nest and its tenants, accompanied by the following 
remarks :— 
‘*Can you name the enclosed for me? As you see, it is on a Pear 
shoot. I found a batch on the same row of trees last year, and this 
season only one. Last season's batch were older, and of a bright 
orange colour; they would not feed in confinement, but lived about 
three months without appearing to feed, and then gradually shrunk to 
very small dimensions. I have not found this insect on any other 
tree in the locality.’’-—(C. B.) 
The caterpillars sent proved, both in appearance and habits, to 
agree excellently with the description of the kind which is still perhaps 
most frequently known by its old name of Lyda pyri, or the Social 
Pear Sawfly. They were as yet (as noted by Mr. Colvile Brown) not 
full grown, being hardly half an inch long, the full length being 
three-quarters or nearly an inch. The colour of the caterpillars 
reddish or reddish orange; they are very smooth and shining, and 
somewhat cylindrical. The head very shining black, with a pair of 
pointed antenne, ringed black with a little white; rings apparently 
about seven,* but difficult to count with certainty. On the segment 
behind the head were some small black markings. The three pairs of 
claw-feet were of the orange colour of the body, and there were no 
ventral or sucker-feet; but on each side of the terminal segment was 
a pale antenna-like process (see figure of larva, p. 121), each about 
as long as the space across the top of the segment between the lowest 
joints of this pair of horn-like processes, which pointed slightly back- 
wards. There was some variety in colour in the caterpillars, according 
to whether they had been lately feeding; in this case the devoured 
matter from the Pear-leaves gave a greenish tint through the trans- 
parent skin. My specimens were obviously only about half-grown ; 
but (as noted by Prof. Westwood in account referred to) this kind 
does not, like many Sawfly larve, change colour at different ages, but 
young and old are similarly coloured. 
The web-nest, in which the caterpillars lay, was three inches long, 
formed of threads spun from their mouths to the Pear-leaves on which 
they were feeding, and when received (very likely a good deal injured 
in transit) was an irregular piece of webbing about three-quarters of 
an inch less or more in width. The earliest spun part, which was 
black with decay and dirt of various kinds, was deserted, and the 
caterpillars lay for the most part in two clusters, one of about twenty- 
two or more grubs, one of not so many. These were closely packed 
* Mr. Cameron says, ‘‘ with long seven- to eight-jointed antenne”’ (‘ British 
Phytophagous Hymenoptera,’ vol. i. p. 53). 
