16 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



eoincs out of the ground soon after the leaves 

 of llic currant and gooseberry bushes, npon 

 wliicli it feeds, \n\t forth in tlic spring, or from 



Colors— IJhick ami yellow 



tiie latter part of April to the forepart of !May. 

 The sexes tlien couple, and the female proceeds 

 lo lay Iier eggs along tlie principal veins on the 

 iiniler si<li' of llic leaf. From these eggs shortly 

 utlcrwanls hatch out niinnte green L'O-leggcd 

 larva' or worms, which at llrst have black heads 

 and many black dots on their bodies, but after 

 monlting for the last time are entirely of a grass- 

 green color, except the large dai-k eye spots on 

 ca(Oi side of the head found in all larvas belong- 

 ing to this genus, and except that the Joint next 

 the head and the two hindmost joints are of a yel- 

 low color, as is also the case in the less mature 

 larva, which bears so many black markings. In 

 the annexed Figure 8, a, a, a, a shows larva; of 

 diflerent sizes in diflTerent positions : aud.6 gives 

 ms- s.] 



Colors— Green, yellow and black. 



an enlarged view of one of the abdominal joints 

 in profile, so as to exhibit the position of the 



black spots. When full-grown the Inrvro arc 

 about lhree-(inarl<'rs of an inch long, and from 

 their greatly increa,sed size, make their presence 

 readily known by the sudden disappearance of 

 the leaves from the infested bushes. Shortly 

 afterwards, having attained a length of fully 

 three-fjnarters of an inch, they burrow under- 

 ground, generally beneath the infested bushes, 

 or, if there are many leaves lying on the ground, 

 simply hide under those leaves. In either case 

 they spin around themselves a thin oval cocoon 

 of brown silk, within which they assume the 

 pupa state. Hut frecincntly, as we arc assured by 

 Mr. Saunders of Canada West, and as European 

 observers have noticed, they spin their cocoons 

 in the open air upon the bushes. About the 

 last week in .Tune or the first part of July, or 

 oc<'asionally not until the beginning of .\ugust, 

 the winged insect bursts forth from the cocoon 

 and emerges lo the light of day ; when the same 

 process of coupling and laying eggs is repeated. 

 The Iarv» hatch out from this second laying of 

 eggs as before , feed on the leaves as before, and 

 spin their cocoons as before; but the perfect fly 

 from this second brood does not come out of the 

 cocoon till the following spring, when the same 

 old .series of phenomena is repeated. 



From the drawings of the J[ale and Female 

 Fly given above (Fig. 7), the reader will see 

 at once that the two sexes differ very widely. 

 This is very generally the case among the .Saw- 

 flies, and it is a remarkable and most suggestive 

 fact that, when this takes place, the body of the 

 male is almost invariably darker than that of 

 the female. Xor does our species, as will be 

 observed at the first glance, form any exception 

 to the rule. Indeed, as with two other Sawflies 

 that devour the foliage of our Pines and Firs 

 {Loplnjrus Abbottii and L. abicth), the body of 

 the male is almost entirely black and tiiat of the 

 female almost entirely yellow; so that at first 

 sight we should suppo.se the two to belong to 

 different species. Since, from some unaccount- 

 able oversight. Dr. Fitch has overlooked this 

 fact, and described both sexes as being colored 

 in the manner which is exclusively to be met 

 with in tlic female, it will be as well to add here 

 full descriptions, first of the female fly and 

 secondly of the male fly. These descriptions 

 were, indeed, published by the Senior Editor 

 two years before Dr. Fitch's appeared; bnt the 

 writings of that gentleman circulate so exten- 

 sively that, when he makes an important mistake 

 such as this, it is proper that it should be cor- 

 rected in our columns in detail. 



Fejiai.e Fly,— Ociioral color of body bright lioncy- 

 yellow. Head black, willi all the paru l)otwci'n ami 

 below the origui of the antenna', except tlic tip of tlic 



