REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 143 



scoop-like dilatation in latter species; but there is in place of the -wing-band, only 

 a light shade in the largest cubital cell; both the femoral hooks and apophyses are 

 almost clear, tho wing-angle of the prothorax brownish white; the whitish femoral 

 rings arc only clear on the hinder legs, and on the abdomen at. most the four middle 

 rings are reddish-brown. The punctures are finer than in N. septentrionalis, especially 

 on tho scutellnm and on tho rather shining mesosternuin. 



Eatzeburg states that he himself has not observed this insect, which 

 occurs in Germany and other parts of Europe. It appeared on the 

 larch in the Harz Mountains as well as in the plains of Holstein. The 

 larva?, are social, but do not occur in such thick, crowded clusters as do 

 those of Lophyrtis. The flies make their appearance toward the mid- 

 dle of June. The eggs are laid usually in a single row on the upper 

 end of the young shoots, two or three sometimes being placed together 

 along the shoot. The eggs are inserted in a little slit made by the ovi- 

 positor under the epidermis. They hatch at the end of June and early 

 in July, and the larv< r e stop eating, becoming fully grown, toward the 

 middle of August. They then fall from the trees and spin their cocoons 

 under the moss ; here they pass the winter, and in the following May 

 enter the chrysalis state within the cocoon, to appear as four- winged 

 Hies in June. From a forestry point of view, adds Eatzeburg, the insect 

 might become injurious since the Iarva3 have already in certain seasons 

 abounded on the larches in sufficient numbers to attract the attention 

 of forestry officers in Holsteiu. 



The habits of the American worm are evidently like those of the 

 European species; and it is very probable that the insect is common to 

 both Europe and Northeastern America. At any r^t-e our species could 

 not have been introduced with European larches, since its ravages have 

 been committed in the wilder, less frequented portions of Maine, New 

 Hampshire, and New York, as well as on the seaboard in towns long 

 settled. In brief, the habits of our species are as follows: The eggs are 

 laid in the terminal young shoots of the larch from about the middle 

 of June, in Massachusetts, to the early part of July in Northern Maine, 

 the larvae feeding on the leaves late in June, and in July and early August. 

 By the last of July to the first week in August, according to the lati- 

 tude, the worms are nearly fully grown, while a few half-grow T n ones oc- 

 cur on the trees in Maine in the last week of August and the early days 

 of September. It is very doubtful whether there are two broods. We 

 will uow r give a more detailed account of its habits. 



The eggs had all hatched by June 23-28 ; few were to be found at 

 Brunswick, although the incisions made by the female were commonly 

 observed. The female saw-fly makes about a dozen incisions in the ter- 

 minal young, fresh, green shoot, sometimes in one of the side shoots 

 next to the terminal one: judging by the shape of the hole, the eggs 

 are of the shape described by Eatzeburg, i. e., oval cylindrical and 

 about 1.5 mm in length. The eggs are placed in two rows, alternating, 

 not exactly parallel, one being placed a little in advance of the other. 

 The eggs are inserted at the base of the fresh, soft, young, partly-devel- 

 oped leaves of the new shoot, which is usually by June 20-30, only about 

 an inch or an inch and a half in length. The presence of the eggs causes 

 a deformation of the shoot, which curls over, the incisions being in all 

 cases observed on one (the inner) side of the shoot. In many cases a last 

 year's shoot was observed with the scars of the incisions on the con- 

 cavity of the shoot. That the incisions were made by the saw-fly was 

 proved by finding a freshly-hatched, but dead, larva in one of the holes. 

 Sometimes one or two of the leaves die in consequence of the wounds 

 made at their base. 



