CHAP. XI.] Saw-flies. 195 
such heaps that the Hebrews were obliged to dig large pits 
in which to bury them. In this country, we have about 
twenty-five different kinds belonging to the same family, 
of which the foregoing is one; but, of course, they are all 
of small size, and therefore may be said to be comparative- 
ly harmless.” 
In another article Edward mentions another insect al- 
-most equally destructive. A friend of Edward at Turriff 
found four saw-jlies in a piece of a fir-tree that was being 
cut up for fire-wood. They are called saw-/lies “from the 
fact that the female possesses, posteriorly, an instrument 
by which she perforates, or rather saws, holes in trees, into 
which she drops her eggs. From this it will be seen that 
the larve are wood-feeders. In this country they are by 
no means numerous, and it is well that they are not, or our 
forests would shortly disappear; for in places where they 
abound, such as in Norway, they destroy hundreds of thou- 
sands of trees in a season. It is only the growing, and not 
the dead, wood that they attack. The young grubs, as soon 
as they emerge from the egg, cut their way right into the 
very heart of the solid timber, and there they gnaw and 
bore in every possible direction. By this means, the tree 
is either killed, ov so injured, that ultimately it pines and 
dies. The fly itself has no English name, but is known to 
entomologists by the term of Sirex juvencus.” 
In another article, Edward mentions the fact of a spider 
(Aranea domestica) having lived in one of his sealed-up 
cases for twelve months without food. He had before 
written to his reverend friend on the subject, but Mr. Smith 
informed him that he had no books on entomology, and 
could give him no information. Edward says of his spi- 
der, that, after the case had been sealed up, he saw him 
walking over the birds contained there, until at last he be- 
came stationary in one of the corners. ‘‘ Toward noon of 
the second day of his incarceration he commenced opera- 
tions, and by breakfast-time of the day following his web 
