492 5?HE SAW FLY". 



Genus II '^enthredo. '^he Sa'M Fly\ 



X HE family of faw flies have two jaws, but no trunk or 

 probofcis. Their fling, which is almofl: hid by the ab- 

 domen, is of a Angular ftrudure, being coinpofed of two 

 plates, and dentated like a faw. The abdomen is clofely 

 united to the thorax, without the intervention of a fmal! 

 Italk, as in the former and fucceeding genera. 



From the iliape of the antennae, the tenthredines have 

 been arranged into fix tribes, confuting of about thirty- 

 nine different fpecies. The mofl remarkable faft in their 

 hiftory feems to be the application of her faw by the fe- 

 male, in cutting out a fpace in the twigs or buds of trees 

 to contain her eggs : The whole procefs is performed with 

 great ingenuity ; and from the tamenefs of thefe animals, 

 may eafily be obferved. 



The eggs thus depofited have the peculiar property of 

 increafifig their fize every day, till the young worms are 

 ready to burft from them. The worm of the tenthredo 

 has often been taken for the filk worm ; an animal 

 "whicii it nearly referobles, except in the feet, which are 

 more numerous : Like the iilk worm, too, the young 

 tenthredo conilru£ts a cod in which it may undergo its 

 laft transformation ; and its edifice confifls of two coats 

 of filk, the external coarfe and flrong, the interior of a 

 fner fubilance *. 



The- 



f Reaumur, Tom. v. Mem. iiii: 



