i 9 o OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



(Rhodites rosce) is black, with red and black legs ; the males having the abdomen 

 entirely black, but the females with red at the base : it is this species which pro- 

 duces on roses, especially the wild rose, the well-known hairy galls, in whose 

 interior, when cut in half, the larva is seen. In winter woodpeckers and tits 

 destroy numbers of these larvae by pecking open the galls. Another rose gall-fly 

 is Aulax brandti, which is black, with reddish brown thighs and claws. 



Amongr the other families of Hymenoptera, the saw-flies (Tenth- 

 Saw-Flies. 



redinidce) feed on both vegetable and animal matter. They have 



two spines on the fore-legs, and the ovipositor of the females, which is not always 



present, does not project beyond the body, and when at rest is hidden in a sheath. 



At times they are predaceous and carnivorous, often attacking other insects. 



As larvae, they resemble caterpillars, and, since they generally live on leaves, they 



are green in colour. These larvae spin for themselves a paper-like wrap, which 



they wear during a period of from ten days to three years. The only care they 



bestow on their young is to make an incision in the plants by means of the 



serrated teeth of their ovipositor, in which incision they lay their eggs. Incisions 



are made in rose-leaves in May by the rose saw-fly (Hylotoma rosce), which is 



about | of an inch in length, and of a deep yellow colour, with a black head and 



antennae, and black on the thorax, as well as at the edges of the fore-wings, and 



at the tips of the tibiae and tarsi. The females lay their eggs, some fifty in number, 



in the incision, and the larvae in August and September eat the leaves of cultivated 



roses, starting at the edges in such a way that only the principal ribs remain. 



The larvae of the pine saw-fly {Lophyrus pini), on the other hand, live only on 



pine-needles. This insect is a little over one-quarter of an inch long ; the females 



being pale yellow, with a blackish head, a black centre to the abdomen, and three 



black spots on the thorax, while the males are black with yellow and black legs. 



Finally, the tailed wasps (Siricidce) have a single spine on the 



1 til l 6(1 WELSpS. c t i'ii ■ • i iiiT mi 



tore-leg, whilst the ovipositor projects beyond the abdomen. Iheir 

 larvae are eyeless and colourless, with short thick legs, and live in the wood of 

 trees and bushes, in which the females deposit their eggs. The larvae are large, 

 and often perforate and destrojr the wood in which they live for nearly two 

 years; the giant tailed-wasp (Sirex gigas) not unfrequently issuing from the 

 wood which has already been in the hands of the carpenter. This insect, which is 

 occasionally 1J inches long, is black, with a large yellow spot on the head 

 behind the eyes, the males having a red abdomen with a black point, and the 

 females a black abdomen with a red centre. 



The most generally attractive, perhaps, of all insects are the 

 butterflies and moths, collectively forming the order Lepidoptera. It 

 is almost unnecessary to say that these insects are provided with two pairs of 

 uniform wings, entirely, or for the greater part, covered with minute scales ; they 

 have a proboscis arranged for sucking, confluent thoracic rings, and they 

 undergo a complete metamorphosis. The butterflies are generally distinguished 

 from the moths by their thread-like antenna? being knobbed or club-shaped at 

 the tips, and by their comparatively broad and large wings, coloured often on 

 both sides, which, when at rest, are held vertically, or nearly so. The genera 



