224 THE PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



feet (except claws) red or red-brown. Caterpillars dusky greenish-grey 

 with black head, pale longitudinal stripe along back, and dusky line with 

 a pale one on each side of it above and below, the spiracles being placed 

 in the lower pale line ; sucker, feet, and under side of body pale-green. 

 When full-grown over \ in. long ; has also habit of raising its head when 

 disturbed. Larvae hatch out about end of May, and feed for 3 to 4 weeks 

 before pupating in an oval, pale yellow-brown parchment-like cocoon 

 (paler, and not so tough as that of L. pini) among needles and heather or 

 in the earth. It also collects in colonies, and two usually attack each 

 needle. The sawflies emerge, pair, and lay eggs in August and September 

 in the needles (in the same way as L. pini}, which remain there all winter, 

 and hatch out in May. Extermination as for Pine Sawfly. 



* The large Larch Sawfly, Nematus Erichsoni, feeds on Larch foliage, 

 and has since 1905 been spreading so quickly and doing so much damage 

 that it is scheduled under the Destructive Insects Act, 1907, and must be 

 reported to Board of Agriculture (penalty up to 10 if not reported). 

 Larch of all ages are attacked, from plantations of 3 or 4 years old up to 

 70-year-old woods. Flies appear from middle of May till end of June. 



Wing-span nearly 1 in. ; ground colour, head, and thorax black ; abdo- 

 men black, red, and black ; thorax thickly and prominently punctured ; 

 antennse 9-jointed, thick, tapering at end. Caterpillar, with 20 legs, f to 

 nearly 1 in. .when full-grown, black head, grey -green on back, pea-green 

 on sides, with brown spiracles. It feeds till end of August chiefly on the 

 tufts of leaves on old shoots, and then hibernates in a dark-brown leathery 

 cylindrical cocoon f to \ in. long, with rounded ends, and pupates there. 

 In May and June the sawflies issue and lay their white longish-oval eggs 

 in one or two rows on the youngest shoots and in slits sawn in the bark. 

 The caterpillars hatch out in June and July, and attack the foliage till 

 they descend to hibernate in cocoons formed below moss litter, &c., 

 before turning to pupae in spring (generation annual, so far as yet observed). 

 Extermination as for L. pini. 



* The small Larch Sawfly, N. laricis, is smaller and quite black, and 

 thorax smooth or not prominently punctured. Caterpillar, hatching out 

 from eggs laid on buds, f in. long, head brown, body grass-green or green- 

 ish-brown, full grown in July, and mostly eating the single leaves on the 

 new shoots. 



B. WOOD-WASPS (Siricidce), the largest of our Hymenoptera, bore deeply 

 into Conifers and softwoods with a long, strong egg-layer, and (though 

 only living for a week) lay about 120 eggs singly in sound stems. The 

 roundish white grub, about 1 in. long when full-grown, has 3 pairs of 

 small thoracic feet, strong jaws, and a characteristic spine on last seg- 

 ment. It bores first in the sapwood, then goes deeper and hibernates ; in 

 second year it bores still deeper, and again hibernates ; and in following 





