Testhredintd-^.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-SlEICID^. 



177 



Mr. Lewis in Tasmania, is interesting, more especially as 

 maternal solicitude is rare of necessity in insects, which 

 perish, generally, before their young can be hatched. 



TentTiredo aud two lai-vjp. 



In a letter to the secretary of the Entomological Society, 

 he showed that the female Perga* deposited her 

 eggs " in a longitudinal incision between the two sur- 

 faces of the leaves of one of the gum trees [Eucalyptus) 

 adjoining the mid rib." There are about eighty of these 

 eggs; "on these the mother sits till the exclusion of the 



Fii:^ 52. 



Cimbe.x — larva and cocoon. 



larva;, which appear not to remain in the egg-state 

 many days. They appear to keep very quiet during the 

 day. The mother insect follows them, sitting with 

 outstretched legs over her brood, preserving them from 

 the heat of the sun, and protecting them from the 

 attacks of parasites and other animals with admirable 

 perseverance." The leaves of tlie gooseberry are often 

 much destroyed by the larva; of the small saw-fly, called 

 Nematus Grossularix. 



* Perga Lewisii Westw. Trans. Ent. Soc. vol. i., p. 234; anil 

 Arc. Ent., pi. 7, fig. 1. 



VOL. II. 



The antennre in the genus Cimbex are club-shaped 

 at the end, and the hind legs in the males are very 

 much thickened in some of the species. The name 

 was given by the ancients to certain insects which 

 resembled bees and wasps, bnt did not produce honey. 

 Several species are indigenous to this country. Dr. 

 Harris describes the Cimbex of the elm, a common 

 American species, the larva of which feeds on that tree. 

 When fidl-grown, these larvK are from an inch to two 

 inches in length ; tliey are thick and cylindrical, and 

 have twenty-two legs, or a pair to every ring bnt tlie 

 fourth. The caterpillars, when handled or disturbed, 

 show their displeasure by spirting out a watery fluid 

 from pores on their sides. Wlien they have done 

 feeding, the larva conceals itself under fallen leaves or 

 other rubbish, and there makes an oval brown cocoon, 

 which is as tough as parchment. In this cocoon, which 

 is about an inch long, the caterpillar remains throughout 

 the winter, and is not changed to a chr3-salis till spring. 

 The insect escapes by gnawing a circular piece off the 

 end of the cocoon. 



The figure of a Cimbex here given (fig. 52) is copied 

 from Ratzeburg — see fig. 52. 



Our figure — Plate 7, fig. 2 — is that of the female of 

 an Australian Saw-fly, with beautiful antennse in the 

 male {Pterygophorus cinctus). 



Family— SmiCID^ {Tailed Wood-icasps). 



A family of insects, not very numerous in species, 

 and often of considerable size. The males and females 

 are, generally, very unlike each other. There are ten 

 British species in the genera Xiphydria, Sirex, and 

 Oryssiis. 



TEEMEX COLUMBA (Canadian Wood-wasp), an 

 abundant insect in Canada. Mr. D'Urban, in his very 

 interesting papers* in the .Zbo%w< for July, 18G0, thus 

 remarks on it : — " Every one who has visited the neigh- 

 bourhood of the beautiful city of Montreal, in the 

 summer season, must have noticed the numerous dead 

 trees, stretching their leafless branches to the sky; and 

 indeed, in many spots a very large proportion of the 

 trees, especially the beautiful hickories {Carya iomen- 

 iosa ?), have fallen victims to the ravages of the Tremex, 

 aided by the larvae of a small beetle (a species of 

 Scolytus) undermining the bark of those trees, which 

 have been rendered sickly by the borings of that hand- 

 some but destructive insect. 



SIREX GIGAS. — The larva; are very destructive to 

 wood; w'hole plantations of firs have been destroyed in 

 this country by the borings of these insects. Kirby and 

 Spence give instances of the fir wood having been cut 

 down, and the wood employed as joists or planks for 

 floors wdien it contained the young larva; of these 

 insects. They live several years in this state, and 

 emerge, sometimes, much to the surprise of the occupants. 

 Ingpen met with an instance. 



iSircc ccdroritm is a species from the Lebanon, a 

 borer into tlie far-famed cedars, so much used in the 

 building of the Temple at Jerusalem. 



The figure— Plate 7, fig. 1— represents the Sircx 

 gigas above alluded to. 



' Insects of New Engl.ind, p. 410. 



