STKUCTUEE OF LARV.i:. 43 



number (PL VI, fig. 3, 3). They are of a fleshy con- 

 sistency, save with Lophyrus, with which they are 

 harder and more horny. They are provided with 

 jointed, thickish palpi, having from three to five joints 

 (1. c., fig. 3, 1). The labium is thick and fleshy, and 

 bears short three-jointed palpi, as well as a spinneret, 

 which may be placed either close to the apex, or not 

 far from the bottom. 



On the thorax are three pairs of jointed legs which 

 terminate in curved horny claws. There are also, on 

 the ventral segments, pro- or false legs, which are in 

 fact mere muscular protuberances. Of these there are 

 six to eight pairs. In the latter case there will be a 

 leg for every segment of the body, save the fourth, 

 which in no case bears appendages. They have never 

 the clasps found in the pro -legs of Lepidoptera. 



In bearing ventral legs, and generally in their mode 

 of life, Saw-fly larvae have a considerable resemblance 

 to the caterpillars of Lepidoptera, for which they are 

 often mistaken. They differ, however, from them in 

 two important points in having only one ocellus on 

 either side of the head, while lepidopterous larvae have 

 several ; and in having a greater number of ventral 

 legs, ten (or sixteen in all) being the greatest number 

 with Lepidoptera, while, as stated above, Saw-fly larvae 

 have from eighteen to twenty-two legs. They differ 

 too in the position of the legs, the caterpillars never 

 having a pair on the fifth segment, which always bears 

 one with the TenthredinidcB, if the abdomen has legs 

 at all. Lyda has no ventral legs, thereby agreeing 

 with the Sir ic idee. With most genera, the abdomen 

 carries on the las-t segment two cerci, which are espe- 

 cially long with Lyda, while with other species they are 

 differently coloured from the surrounding parts. 



Mostly bare, or at least with the skin wrinkled ; in 

 other cases, the larvae are covered with tubercles, each 

 of which ends in a soft or bristly hair, which becomes 

 in Iloplocampa and Blennocampa converted into a large 

 branching spine. 



