SU.B-FAMILY LOPHYBINA. 71 



bodies and a liquid, also of a resinous smelJ, from the 

 mouth. In Britain these insects have not been so 

 injurious to the pines as they have been on the Conti- 

 nent, but still occasionally they appear in enormous 

 numbers in plantations of Scotch firs. When they have 

 been abundant, the cocoons are found massed more or 

 less together among the loose moss, leaves, &c., at the 

 foot of the trees ; and by collecting and destroying these 

 much may be done to prevent an attack of the larvae 

 in the following year. It has also been suggested that 

 the larvae be crushed by a man armed with a strong 

 pair of gloves ; by sprinkling them with naphtha by 

 means of a brush roughly made of feathers, when they 

 at once fall to the ground; by syringing them with a 

 solution of hellebore ; and by shaking them early in the 

 morning from the trees into a sheet, when they can 

 readily be destroyed. Cf. Ormerod, Man. of Inj. Ins., 

 p. 230. 



Fortunately, they have an exceptional number of 

 insect enemies in the shape of Ichneumons and para- 

 sitic Diptera ; various birds feed on the perfect insects ; 

 but few of them will touch the feeding larvae, probably 

 from the resinous exudation having a prejudicial effect 

 on them. Mice have been known to devour the larvae 

 in the cocoons, and squirrels will likewise eat the spun- 

 up larvse. 



In the form of the head and thorax this group ap- 

 proaches closely the Cimbicina, and in the latter pecu- 

 liarity it also resembles the Hylotomina ; but in the 

 peculiar structure of the antennae and of the ovipositor 

 it widely departs from both. In these respects it has 

 no near Palaearctic or Nearctic relatives. Its nearest 

 allies are to be found in the Neotropical and Australian 

 regions of the globe, in the former by Lophyroidet, 

 Perreyia, and their allies, in the latter by Pterygophorus. 

 Perreyia, &c., form a distinct sub-family separable 

 from Lophyrus by the entire labium, by the paucity of 

 joints in the palpi, by the antennae never having more 

 than seventeen joints, nor have the posterior wings 



