200 



HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



burrows of a splendid insect called Sirex gigas by entomologists. 

 Whether it has any popular name I do not know, but I have 

 never been able to discover one, although I have shown speci- 

 mens of the insect in many parts of England. 



This is the more extraordinary, because it is a really splendid 

 creature, nearly as large as a hornet, having wide wings, a bright 

 yellow and black body, and a long firm ovipositor, so that from 

 the head to the end of the ovipositor it measures an inch and 

 three quarters in length. So unobservant, however, is the gen- 

 eral public, that nine tenths of those to whom I showed it de- 

 clared that it was a wasp, and the remainder thought it to be a 

 hornet. A very reduced figure of the insect is shown in the il- 

 lustration, and will give a good idea of its general form. In size 

 it is exceedingly variable, some specimens being twice as large as 

 others. 



Sirex. 



The Sirex is a terrible destroyer of fir-wood, in some cases 

 riddling a tree so completely with its tunnels that the timber is 

 rendered useless. In a little fir plantation about two miles from 

 my house, there are a number of dead and dying trees, and 

 almost every tree shows the ravages of this destructive insect. 

 The absence of external holes is no proof that the Sirex has not 

 attacked the tree, for they are only the doors through which the 

 insect has escaped from the tree into the world. 



