Insects. 



8303 



The observer is naturally impelled to conclude there must be some 

 mistake in his observations. 



I first found the larvae at a country seat near Rotterdam, on the 

 Weymouth pine (Pinus Strobas) ; the trees had a sickly appearance, 

 arising probably from the fact that they were growing in an uncon- 

 genial soil. From their variegated colours the larvae were very con- 

 spicuous, so much so that many persons called my attention to them. 

 It was with some of these larvae that I there made the observations 

 which I alluded to in my description of Lophyrus Pini. 1 left the 

 larvae quite at liberty, and allowed them to pupize as they pleased. 

 Some spun oval cocoons upon the branches of the trees on which 

 they had lived ; others descended from the tree, and spun up at its 

 foot among the roots and the surrounding moss ; these cocoons were 

 paler or more of a gray tint than the others. I collected both in sepa- 

 rate boxes. From the first cocoons, namely, those attached to the 

 branches, I got nothing but a species of Pteromalinus ; while the 

 others, which I had found at the roots, produced perfect sawflies, 

 only here and there one containing a dried-up larva. Can it be that 

 the circumstance of a sawfly larva being infested with parasites ren- 

 ders it so weak or so sluggish that it is uuable to get through the 

 journey along the branches and down the stem of the tree ? If so, 

 why does it not simply let itself fall from the branches ? I am un- 

 able myself to reply to these questions. I must also state that 1 have 

 had no opportunity of repeating this observation, and therefore it may 

 be that the whole matter is nothing but a chance coincidence which 

 may never be observed again. The larvae have been once taken by 

 Dr. M. C. Verloren at Driebergen, and several times by Dr. J. Wtte- 

 waal at Voorst ; this gentleman sent me the specimens from which the 

 figs. 1, 2 and 2a, plate 8, were drawn. On comparing this plate with the 

 11th of the first volume, one sees at once the great difference between 

 the larvae of these so nearly allied species. It must be remarked that 

 the larva of Lophyrus Pini is of a darker shade and more variegated 

 with spots than as represented in the said plate, but the bright yellow 

 and dark blue, which are such conspicuous colours in the larva of L. 

 sirailis, are not found in that of L. Pini. I have a drawing, made 

 since the publication of vol. i., of a larva which I did not take to be 

 that of L. Pini, but which has nevertheless produced that species : I 

 shall perhaps be able to give this figure on some future occasion. 



The larva of L. similis attains a length of 3 centimetres, and a cir- 

 cumference of nearly 15 millimetres. Head bright shining black, 

 round, depressed, not elliptical. The six corneous thoracic legs are 



