2478 The Zoologist — February, 1871. 



Life- Histories of Sawflies. Translated from tlie Dutch of M. S. C. 

 Snellen van Vollenhoven, by J. W. May, Esq. 



(Continued from Zool. S. S. 1996.) 



Selandria melanocephala, F. 

 Fabriciufs, Si/sf. Piez. 26, 20. Coqueheri, Illustr. Icon. i. 16, 

 tab. 3, fig. 6. Reaumur, Memoires, v., Mem. 3, p. 94, tab. 12, 

 figs. 7—12. Dahlbom, Clavis novi Hym. Si/s-t. p. 83, No. 49.* 

 Hariig, Blatt-und Holztvespen, p. 271, No. 17. 



Notwithstanding several collectors have taken the female of this 

 species, and some entomologists have reared the imago from the 

 larva, the male remains unknown. Selandria melanocephala 

 appears to occur pretty frequently in the larval slate, but is 

 exposed to so many dangers during its existence that only a small 

 number of imagos remain to propagate the species. Rearing on a 

 large scale would probably produce the male, but this can only be 

 undertaken by some one who has the advantage of living in the 

 country, and not by a town dweller : thus, in order to supply these 

 larvaj with proper food, it is necessary to procure the little tender, 

 soft, pale green or reddish leaves, which are found on the shoots of 

 old and large oak trees ; and one can understand how difficult it is 

 for the inhabitant of a town, having no wood in the neighbourhood 

 in which such trees occur, to find a supply of this food fresh every 

 day. A necessary consequence of the difl5culties attending the 

 development of this insect, even in the free state, is that in some 

 years the larvaj are scarcely to be found at all. I only remember 

 to have seen the larva once in very great numbers, together with an 

 incredible quantity of Tephrosia crepuscularia : this was, however, 

 a considerable lime ago, and must have been between 1830 and 

 1834 : since that time 1 have only seen the larvae in small 

 numbers. 



The larvae occur of two different tints, pale green (as shown in 

 figs. 1 and 2), and sordid grayish green (as in fig. 6), the latter 

 being the more frequent. I have reared the same imago from 

 either. The first variety I have only taken at Warmond or received 



* As Dahlbom quotes Reaumur, " furculis uigris " must be read in the 

 description for " furculis albis." 



