8014 



Insects. 



which are reticulated. The best-fed and earliest-matured larvae spin 

 brown cocoons (fig. 7) ; those which are weaker, and later in attaining 

 their full growth, spin yellow cocoons. 



If the cocoons are cut open in March of the following year, the 

 insect is found to be still in the larval state, although having under- 

 gone some change. It appears to be about half its former size, and 

 is of a dull yellowish green colour; the head is still yellow, but the 

 crown has become brown in place of orange. The trophi are piceous; 

 below the mouth are seen the six thoracic legs lying close together ; 

 the abdominal legs, on the other hand, appear merely as wrinkles 

 (see fig. 8). A short time afterwards, even in the course of the same 

 month, pupa? are to be found in the cocoons ; these are shining, dull 

 green, with darker, blackish wing-sheaths ; all the external parts are 

 readily seen, and the antennas, legs and wings distinct from the body, 

 being merely covered with a thin transparent skin ; the fluid which is 

 beneath this skin gives a glassy appearance to all the parts ; the ab- 

 domen is somewhat darker in colour ; on the under side the saw of 

 the female can be distinguished. 



The imago made its appearance with me at the end of March, 

 having been kept in a moderately warmed room ; but I doubt if it is 

 to be met with as early in the natural state. With its great jaws it 

 bit a round piece out of the cocoon in about an hour (a gnawing sound 

 was audible during this operation). When it emerged from its prison 

 the wings were completely unfolded and nearly hardened. Other 

 imagos were produced in the last days of the same month. 



The perfect insects are 16 to 18 mm. long, their utmost expansion 

 being 38 mm. They are sluggish auimals, requiring the warmth of 

 the sun to induce them either to run or fly. I do not know whether 

 they take any food ; I presume they do, as they appear to exist in the 

 perfect state for a month or even six weeks. 



The general colour of these sawflies is black ; the head is broader 

 in the male than in the female ; in both sexes it is black, and clothed 

 with black pubescence on the crown, that on the face and neck 

 being ferruginous. In the male the mandibles are very long and 

 acutely dentate, the eyes large and elliptical, the ocelli disposed in 

 the form of a right-angled triangle on the crown. The antennae are 

 clavate and entirely black. Westwood states, in the 1 Gardener's 

 Chronicle,' and other English authors assert the same, that the 

 antennae contain eight joints, of which the first two are very short 

 and thick, the third long and narrow, the fourth and fifth shorter and 

 of equal length, the last three forming an ovoid club. 1 cannot help 



