520 HYMEXOPTERA. 



ornament, in this vicinity, have been attacked by swarms 

 of false caterpillars, and, in some instances that have fallen 

 under my notice, have been nearly stripped of their leaves 

 every summer, and in consequence thereof have been checked 

 in their growth, and now seem to be in a sickly condition. 

 These destructive insects agree in their habits and in their 

 general appearance, in all their, states, with the pine and 

 fir saw-flies, described by Kollar,* by whose ravages whole 

 forests of these trees have been destroyed in some parts 

 of Germany. It is probable, however, that the American 

 fir saw-flies are not identical with those of. Europe, as they 

 differ from them rather too much to have originated from 

 the same stock ; neither do they sufficiently agree with Dr. 

 Leach's descriptions of Lophyrus Americanus, Abbotii, com- 

 par, &c. ; and therefore I propose to name this apparently 

 undescribed species Lophyrus Abietis, the Lophyrus of the 

 fir-tree. 



The following is a description of the insect in its winged 

 state. The two sexes differ very much from each other 

 in size and color, and still more remarkably in the form 

 of their antennas. The male (Plate VIIL Fig. 3) is the 

 smallest, measures one quarter of an inch in length, and 

 expands his wings about two fifths of an inch. His body 

 is black above, and brown beneath ; his wings are trans- 

 parent, with changeable tints of rose-red, green, and yel- 

 low ; and his legs are wholly of a dirty leather-yellow color. 

 His antennae (Plate VIIL Fig. 4, magnified) resemble very 

 short, black feathers, wide at the end, and narrowed to a 

 point, and are curled inwards on each edge, so as to appear 

 hollow. The genus Lophyrus derives its name from the 

 plume-like crest on the heads of the male insects. The 

 body of the female (Plate VIIL Fig. 5) is about three 

 tenths of an inch long, and her wings expand half an inch 

 or more. She is of a yellowish-brown color above, with 

 a short blackish stripe on each side of the middle of the 



* Treatise, pp. 340 and 347. 



