NOTES ON THE WOOD-WASPS {S/J?£A') IN SCOTLAND i75 



NOTES ON THE WOOD - WASPS (SIR EX) 

 OCCURRING IN SCOTLAND; WITH SPECIAL 

 REFERENCE TO THEIR PRESENT - DAY 

 DISTRIBUTION. 



By William Evans, F.R.S.E.^ 



At the present time there are in Scotland two species of 

 Siricid(B (Wood-wasps or Giant Saw-flies) which in the 

 course of the past thirty or thirty-five years have earned for 

 themselves a claim to a place on our fauna that cannot be 

 ignored. They are Sirex gigas^ Linnaeus, the Giant Wood- 

 wasp ; and what it seems we must call Sirex cyaneus, Fabri- 

 cius, the Blue-black Wood-wasp. On the latter point, 

 however, more will be said later on. Whatever may have 

 been their former status — whether partly indigenous or 

 wholly introduced — both are now thoroughly at home in 

 this country, breeding freely in the older coniferous woods 

 in many districts. Of course importation in foreign timber 

 still goes on, and to this source many of the specimens 

 captured about coast towns and villages are no doubt due. 

 The frequency of their larval borings in home-grown timber 

 is, however, only too well known. Being large, formidable- 

 looking insects, they readily attract the attention of the 

 uninitiated ; and having, moreover, rather a habit of entering 

 houses, and even of alighting on people, they are frequently 

 captured and sent to museums with a request for the name 

 and some information as to the habits of the creature. The 

 long ovipositor of the female no doubt gives the impression 

 of a sting, but in reality there is nothing in the nature of a 

 weapon of offence about it. 



The main object of this paper is to trace the comital 

 distribution of these two fine insects in Scotland to-day ; but 

 before proceeding to deal with that problem, some remarks 

 on the characteristics of the species, and other points of 

 interest about them, may be useful. 



1 The first part of this paper was corrected in proof by Mr Evans 

 during his last illness ; the second part, containing detailed records, was 

 completed in its final form by his daughter, Miss C. Ethel Evans. — Eds. 



