158 INSECTS. 



tiful green, the two latter with delicate black markings ; 

 Athalia rosce has the head and thorax black, the abdomen 

 yellow, whilst Dosytheus eglantinus is alternately black 

 and orange. The ground colour most common is black, 

 with yellow wasp-like rings (as many of the Allantus, 

 and Tenthredo zonata fig. 1, plate VI.), or broader bands 

 of red, as T. Scutellatus, which has also pale yellow spots 

 on the thorax. The legs and antennae are sometimes 

 beautifully variegated with red or yellow and black. 

 The male and female sometimes vary in colour, as in T. 

 lividus, of which the female is black, with one pale spot 

 on each side of the base of the abdomen, and a white 

 band towards the end of the antennae ; the male black and 

 red, with red antennas. 



The Sawflies are a large family, the larvae of which are 

 only too well known both by gardeners and by farmers. 

 The armies of " caterpillars " which in a few weeks or even 

 days, will strip every leaf from a plantation of gooseberry 

 bushes, or rather, which will strip the green soft part 

 from every leaf, leaving the leaf-ribs standing bare on 

 their stalks, are the larvae of a Sawfly, Nematus grossularice. 



The " turnip-fly,"* Athalia spinarum, an insect with 

 black and yellow thorax, black tipped, yellow abdomen, 

 black head and antennae, and yellow legs, is another of 

 the Tenthredo family, and its devastations are sometimes 

 so great that, as is mentioned by Mr. Westwood, an 

 instance has been known in which many thousand acres 

 of land were obliged to be ploughed up. A very vivid 

 picture of the appearance of a swarm of this species in 

 the winged state is given in a note which Mr. F. Smith, 



* The name " Turnip-fly" is perhaps more commonly applied to a little 

 hopping Beetle (Hallica nemorum), which is very destructive to the 

 turnips. 



