40 PL atre! €Xcvi. 
The Sirex genus, as it ftands in the Entomologia Syftematica of 
Fabricius, includes only twenty-fix {pecies; thefe are chiefly Euro- 
pean Infects; but very few are natives of this country. The Sirex | 
Gigas is found in the north of Europe; it has been taken in 
England, but very rarely: Yeats and Berkenhout mention it as a 
Britifh fpecies, and we have been informed that it is fometimes 
taken in Scotland. It is likely to be met with in Pine forefts, as 
the female feems to prefer that wood to depofit her eggsin. As ne@ 
Englifh Entomologift has attempted to defcribe the peculiar habits of 
this tribe of Infects, and efpecially of Sirex Gigas, the following 
particulars may be fatisfactory to our readers. 
The extenfive forefts of Germany furnifhed the accurate Roefel 
with many opportunities of finding and obferving the metamorphofis 
of Infects that are rarely to be found in other parts of Europe ; and 
this enabled him to favour the world with a particular defcription 
and feries of figures of all the changes of Sirex Gigas, in the Bom- 
byliorum et Vefparum of his Infeéten Beluftigung. His figure of the 
female Infe&t agrees with that we have given; the male is confi- 
derably fmaller, and has no fting*. The fting of the female confifts 
of three parts, a fheath which divides into two parts or valves, and a 
fine inftrument fomewhat refembling a needle; it is with this in- 
ftrument it wounds its enemies, and the fting is faid to caufe an 
excruciating pain. The microfcope difcovers this part to be befet 
with a number of very minute teeth, like the edge of a faw: with 
this fting the creature can pierce the wood of found trees; for we 
fufpet, it does not always depofit its eggs in fuch as are decayed, 
but rather in fuch as will fupply the larva with nourifhment when it 
is hatchec. The eggs are laid in clufters of two or three hundred 
together ; they are of a pale yellow colour, about the thirtieth part 
of an inch in length, and fhaped like a weaver’s fhuttle. The larva 
lives in the body of the tree, enlarging its habitation as it increafes 
in fize, for it never leaves the tree till it becomes a winged creature. 
* This is a generical diftin€tion. 
The 
