TENTHITEDINID^E. 



225 



with a short black stripe on each side of the thorax. The 

 larvae are about half an inch long, of a pale dirty green, yel- 

 lowish beneath, striped with green, and when full-fed yellowish 

 all over. They are social, and may often be found in consider- 

 able numbers on a single needle of the pitch-pine. The larvae 

 spin tough cocoons 

 among the leaves, 

 and the flies appear 

 during August, but 

 probably in greater 

 numbers in the 

 spring. 



These slugs can 

 be best destroyed 

 by showering them 

 with a solution of 

 carbolic acid, pe- 

 troleum, whale oil Fig. 153. 

 soap, or tobacco water. Mr. Fish has sent me the larvae of a 

 saw-fly, allied to L. abietis, which, in Eastham, Mass,, ravaged 

 the young pitch-pines planted in the sandy soil of that region.* 

 The eggs are laid singly in the side of a needle of the pine ; 

 though sometimes an egg is inserted on each side of the 

 leaf. 



Mr. Riley has described the habits of the White-pine saw-fly, 



of an inch in length when fully grown ; darkest above, and with indistinct black- 

 ish spots upon the sides. The head is white with a small black dot upon each side. 



" Specimens were taken upon the leaves July 4th. Went into the ground about 

 the 20th of July. The cocoon is formed near the surface of the ground of a little 

 earth or sand drawn together. Four specimens came forth about August 22d, all 

 seeming very small for so large lai'vae." 



* On sending specimens of the male and female to Mr. Norton he writes that 

 this is an undescribed species, of which he has prepared the following description : 



" Lophyrus pini-rigidce Norton. New Species. Female. Length, 0.30; expanse 

 of wings, 0.65 of an inch; antennae seventeen-jointed, short, brown; color, luteous 

 brown, with a black line joining the ocelli, a black stripe down each of the three lobes 

 of the thorax above, and the sutures behind; body paler beneath; the trochanters 

 and base of the tibiae waxen; claws with an inner tooth near the middle; wings 

 very slightly clouded; cross nervure of the lanceolate cell straight. Male. Length, 

 0.25; expanse of wings, 0.55 of an inch; antennae fifteen-jointed, black, quite short; 

 with twelve branches on each side, those at the base nearly as long as the sixth 

 and seventh; apical joint simple, enlarged at base; color of insect black, with the 

 abdomen at apex and beneath yellow-brown ; legs the same color at base ; below 

 the knees whitish. 



15 



