SAMOUELLE S 



have observed that a soft but dry state of decomposi- 

 tion is prefered, aud in such wood we find the cater- 

 pillars fat and plump, for they appear to feed without 

 difficulty, and their progress is not retarded by severe 

 labour, which will no doubt in many instances 

 strengthen and so far improve the incipient animal, 

 that in its last and perfect state it will be increased 

 in size and more fully developed in its form. 



Mr. Christy of Claphatn, lately shewed us a speci- 

 men of a Sirex, certainly new to the British Faunce, 

 upon examination we found it to be the Sirex nigri- 

 cornis of Fabricus Systema Piezatorum, and on a 

 farther reference to his Entomologia Systematica, 

 tlit- description so completely accorded with the spe- 

 cimen, that Mr. C. was perfectly satisfied as to the 

 identity of the species. This insect, there is but lit- 

 tle doubt, had been introduced to this country in the 

 larva state in American pine, and possibly bred in 

 some building, and in this state may have been for 

 some years. That the caterpillar of an insect will 

 remain in dried but not decomposed wood, for a 

 period of twenty years, is a fact well established by 

 the late Mr. Marsham ; and of which an account will 

 be found in the Transaction* of the Linncean Society, 

 Vol. 10. And Mr. Kirby relates a similar anecdote 

 of the Sirex Gigas, on the authority of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, that were seen to come out of the floor of a 

 nursery in a gentleman's house, to the no small 

 alarm and discomfiture of both nurse and children. 



The specimen of S. nigricornis, was found in the 

 month of September last, on a Dahlia, in a garden, 

 in Essex 



