TRUE SAWFLIES 2979 



when feeding on the pine needles. When all the needles in the neighborhood have 

 been devoured, the web is extended, so that a great number of young shoots may 

 be embraced and destroyed. The perfect insect is shining blue black, with some of 

 the abdominal segments reddish yellow. 



TRUE SAWFLIES Family TENTHREDINIDJE 



In this exceedingly numerous and widely-distributed group, a well-known ex- 

 ample is the pine sawfly (Lophyrus pint}, of which the larvae are sometimes found 

 in such numbers in pine woods, where they feed upon the needles, that the trunks 

 are often colored yellow and the branches weighed down. Toward the end of July, 

 the perfect insect emerges by gnawing off the cap of the barrel-shaped pupa case. 

 The eggs are laid in incisions made in the needles, these wounds being subsequently 

 closed with a viscid secretion which protects the eggs. As many as twenty eggs 

 may thus be deposited in a single needle. When young, and also just before turn- 

 ing into pupae, the grubs are very susceptible to sudden cold or heavy rain, which 

 will kill off thousands. In addition to these destructive agencies, nearly forty dif- 

 ferent kinds of parasites infest the grubs, while mice devour numbers of the pupae. 



FEMALE AND MALE OF GIANT-TAILED WASP. 

 (Natural size.) 



The illustration below shows all the stages of development, one of the grubs being 

 drawn in the act of endeavoring to ward off the attacks of a parasite by the ejection 

 from its mouth of an offensive fluid. To the same family belongs the turnip saw- 

 fly (Athalia spinarum}, which is one of the most destructive species. The perfect 

 insect appears in May from larvae which have passed the winter in their pupae cases, 

 and lays its eggs upon the leaves of rape and turnips; as many as two hundred or 

 three hundred eggs being often deposited by a single female; and in September and 

 October the ravages of the green and black larvae become only too evident. The 

 grub is full grown in October, when it descends to the surface of the earth, and 



