INJURIOUS INSECTS 



upon the seed, or kernel, and when full grown emerges from the shell, 

 leaving behind a mass of dark, powdery excrement. The pupa lives in the 

 ground till the following May, when the beetle comes forth and feeds on 

 the young buds of the Hazel. The wild plant should not be allowed to 

 grow near cultivated Hazels or Filberts. All fallen nuts should be collected 

 and burned. The weevils may be shaken from the trees into cloths or on 

 to tarred boards. 



The Order Hymenoptera includes the Bees, Wasps, Ants, Gall-flies, 

 Saw-flies, and Ichneumons. Many of these may be considered as injurious 

 insects, some in relation to our present subject. 



The Rose Leaf-cutting Bee {Megachile centuncularis) causes much annoyance 

 to Rose growers by cutting out semicircular pieces from the foliage. The 

 pieces are used for lining a circular tube formed either in decaying wood 

 or in brick walls, or sometimes in the ground. At the bottom of the tube, 

 which is often some inches in length, the female bee lays an egg, and, having 

 provided a store of food consisting of pollen and honey, closes up the cell 

 with more circular leaf-sections, and continues the process until six or more 

 cells have been formed. Complete metamorphosis takes place in the cell, 

 and the leaf-cutting bee emerges in the next season. 



The Common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) does great injury to ripe fruits. 

 The nest is commenced by a single female, which has survived the winter, and 

 is afterwards enlarged by the exertions of her progeny, the work continuing 

 till the cells may number many thousands. Prevention is best secured by 

 encouraging the capture of the females or Queens in the spring. Nests in 

 holes and trees may be destroyed in various ways, and the insects may be 

 caught in simple traps made of bell-glasses inverted one over another, or 

 even a bottle containing a sweet fluid. 



The so-called Wood- wasps include two well-known injurious insects, the larva.' 

 of which feed in the wood of Conifers, boring tunnels about ■?. inch in 

 diameter. 



The Giant Sirex {Sirex gigas) is the first of these. The female is yellow, 

 with two black bands, and a stout ovipositor, the body measuring from 



xxxm 



