CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 121 



Ireland, in company with Mr. H. J. Turner, F.E.S., 

 we came across a poplar-tree on the bank of the 

 river Nore which was completely riddled by this 

 insect, so that it was very easy to tear away the 

 wood that had been left and so reveal dozens of the 

 larvae of various sizes, showing that several genera- 

 tions of them were working as contemporaries. 

 The burrows were attended by hundreds of a little 

 beetle {Soronia functatissima) that had not pre- 

 viously been found in Ireland. They were feeding 

 upon the frass of Cossus. 



The Wood Leopard Moth (Zeuzera fyrina) 

 tunnels in the living wood of apple, pear, elm, poplar, 

 and horse-chestnut, but its work does not appear 

 to be of a destructive character ; it has even been 

 declared that fruit-trees attacked by it bear more 

 abundantly than their neighbours that are not 

 affected by it. The larva spends two or three 

 years in the tree, pupating in its burrow ; and 

 the chrysalis has the rings of its body furnished 

 with spines, so that by the alternate contraction 

 and expansion of its segments it can force its way 

 towards the mouth of its burrow when it is about 

 to assume the winged condition. 



The beautiful little moths known in the aggregate 

 as the Clearwings (Sesiidae), are all carpenters in 

 the larval condition. They then bear a very close 

 resemblance to the grubs of wood-boring beetles, 

 but when they have reached the winged condition 

 they are more likely to be taken for hymenoptcrous 

 insects by the non-entomological observer. Most 



