Insects. 



7891 



twenty-one months instead of nine before the perfect insect comes 

 forth. 



The time of appearance of these sawrlies is thus somewhat irregulaj', 

 and individuals of this species will sometimes produce but one brood, 

 and at other times two broods, in the same year. However, the rule is 

 generally only one generation in the year, the several stages being as 

 follows. Two or three weeks suffice for the egg state, two months 

 for the larva out of the cocoon, nearly nine months for the larva in the 

 cocoon, only a few days for the pupa state, and but a very few days 

 for the perfect insect before the laying of the eggs takes place. In 

 the usual course April and June are the months in which the insect is 

 to be met with on the wing. 



The male of this common sawfly is 3 to 3j Paris lines (from 7 to 

 nearly 9 ram.) long, and expands 7 to 7^ lines (between 1 6 and 18 ram.). 

 The joints of the antennas are beautifully pectinated on both sides, 

 from one end to the other, the teeth on the outside being ranch longer 

 than those on the inside ; the colour is black or brown-black. Head 

 black, punctulate, with dark gray pubescence ; three ruby ocelli 

 arranged in an acute triangle ; the appendage to the upper lip and the 

 extremities of the palpi rufo-testaceous. Thorax black, strongly 

 punctulate, pubescent; tegulae brown. Wings pale smoke-colour; 

 nervures and stigma dirty yellow. There are two whitish spots on 

 either side of the first joint of the abdomen ; they are situated on that 

 part of the joint in question forming the dorsum, and which reaches 

 down in a point to the under side of the abdomen. For the rest the 

 abdomen is finely punctulate and black, with the exception of the anal 

 extremity, which is reddish. The legs are black from the base to half 

 way the femur, the remainder being pale rufo-testaceous, only the ex- 

 tremities of the tibiae somewhat darker and inclining to brown. 



King mentions a variety, from the neighbourhood of Berlin, having 

 the under side of the abdomen pale brown, with some black stripes, 

 and a similar variety is observed by Harlig in the Harts, near Neustadt- 

 Everswalde. 



The colouring of the female is entirely different ; she is at the same 

 time a little longer and much broader, her length reaching to 4| lines, 

 or something more than 1 centimetre, and having an expansion of 

 nearly 9 lines or 19 mm. The general colour of the body, with the 

 exception of the head, is a dirty more or less brownish but shining 

 yellow; the head, on the other hand, is decidedly brown, in some 

 individuals even passing over to a black-brown; beneath the eyes and 

 the parts of the mouth the colour is paler, being dirty yellow. The 



