Insects. 



8655 



sal stripe. The head has become very shining and of a reddish brown 

 colour, with a .darker crown ; the eyes are inserted in black spots, and 

 the upper jaws are of a deep brown ; the hairs, which before entirely 

 covered the head, have disappeared ; the segments of the body seem 

 to be more wrinkled, which may be attributed to the fact that the 

 length of the body is somewhat lessened ; lastly, the margins of the 

 spiracles are darker. 



Most of my larvae moulted for the last time between the 1st and 

 5th of October. 



According to an observation of M. De Roo, which that gentleman 

 subsequently communicated to me, the larva, when very young, is 

 more greenish in tint. 



As already stated, these larvae fed upon the leaves of Scrophularia 

 nodosa ; Bouche writes that they are also to be met with on the Ver- 

 bascum, which appears not improbable, as this is likewise the case 

 with the larvae of some Cucullia which are found on both plants. 



The larvae of our sawfly were very inactive, remaining for the most 

 part quite still, and rolled up spirally on the under sides of the leaves, 

 as shown at figs 2 and 4. On feeding, which they appear mostly to 

 do at night, they eat holes in the middle of the leaves. 



Shortly after their last change of skin my larvae buried themselves 

 in the ground, and there constructed rounded cocoons of small grains 

 of earth. About the end of May or beginning of June they change 

 within the cocoon to pupae, which are at first whitish and afterwards 

 orange, but further do not appear to have any noteworthy peculiari- 

 ties : one is represented at fig. 5. 



The insects remain at rest in this state for about three weeks, 

 when the imagos make their appearance. The perfect insect is very 

 prettily coloured, and has something of the appearance of Allantus 

 tricinctus, already described [Zool. 7718], but may be immediately 

 distinguished from this latter by its ferruginous antennae. They are 

 about 13 mm. long ; head and thorax beset with short hairs ; abdo- 

 men entirely smooth. The general colour of the body is black. The 

 subclavate antennae have the third joint the longest, and are ferrugi- 

 nous or obscure orange. The clypeus and upper lip, as also a mark 

 on the cheeks, are yellow ; in the thorax the following are coloured 

 yellow : — a spot above the first pair of coxae, two lines on the pro- 

 thorax running obliquely forward, the tegulae, a spot beneath the an- 

 terior wings, the scutellum and a small line below it, and lastly a pretty 

 large spot above the posterior coxae. The femora are black, although 

 in some examples the front of the first two pairs is of a greenish 



