INSECTS INJURIOUS IN THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



829 



top, while in the sixth it is very short, and alto- 

 gether wanting in the rest. In the female the 



Fig. 275. 



ANTLER -ROSK SAW-FLY. 



horns are unbranched and tapering ; the wings, 

 of which there ai*e four, are irridescent, and 

 slightly stained with a dark brownish shade ; 

 the stigma and nervures brown, the legs ochre- 

 ous, thighs black, except at the tips. It is diffi- 



Fig. 276. 



ROSE CADDICE FLY. 

 VOL II. 



cult to point 

 any remedy far- 

 ther than what 

 has so often been 

 recommended 

 for caterpillars 

 in general, such 

 as dusting the 

 plants with helle- 

 bore in powder, 

 or with snuff, 

 watering with 

 lime or soot-wa- 

 ter, shaking the 

 branches sud- 

 denly, and catch- 

 ing the enemy on 

 a cloth spread 

 below. 



The rose cad 

 dice saw-fly (Ly- 

 da inanita), fig. 

 276.— The larva, 

 when full grown 

 is nearly an inch 

 in length, of a 

 dirty-green col- 

 our, having two 

 six-jointed an- 

 tennae, two glo- 

 bular black eyes, 

 three pairs of 

 thoracic legs, and 



a pair of slender three-jointed feeler-like organs 

 attached to the extremity of the last segment of 

 the body. The fly appears about the end of May 

 or beginning of June, is remarkable for its bril- 

 liant golden wings, as it may be seen on the leaves 

 of the rose during hot sunshine, darting off with 

 great velocity on being approached ; hence its 

 capture is most difficult. It is by no means a 

 common insect in Britain, but has been found 

 on roses at Hammersmith and elsewhere, com- 

 mitting considerable havoc ; and there is little 

 doubt that its existence is more widely diffused, 

 although probably not distinguished from others 

 by cultivators. From the end of June and through 

 July, it has been discovered concealed in curi- 

 ous cases, formed of bits of rose-leaves cut into 

 strips, and carefully rolled up into a long cylin- 

 der-like form, one end of which remains attached 

 to the leaf, while in the broken end there is an 

 orifice, by which the caterpillar makes its escape. 

 It destroys the foliage in the construction of 

 its case, cutting off by degrees one edge of the 

 leaf into a strip about one-eighth of an inch in 

 width, while at the same time it sustains itself 

 by feeding on the leaf. This strip is lengthened 

 as the insect proceeds upwards or downwards, 

 one end of the strip being fastened to its body, 

 while it winds it as it is formed round itself, 

 until the case is fully formed, and itself is en- 

 shrouded, when it detaches the strip from the 

 leaf, and drops to the ground about July, and 

 remains in the pupa state till the following May. 

 The whole economy of this insect is most curi- 

 ous, and worth the attentive observation of the 

 entomologist. 



Megachile centuncularls is one of the carpen- 

 ter or leaf-cutting bees which attack the leaves 

 of plants, as much, probably, for the purpose of 

 constructing their nests as for actual food. The 

 rose and common laburnum especially suffer 

 from their attacks. The genus is numerous. 

 The present subject may serve as an illustration 

 of the whole. The perfect insect measures 

 about an inch and a half when its wings are 

 fully extended, of a pitchy colour with yellowish 

 legs, the abdomen ringed with white lines, and 

 the whole covered with yellowish woolly hair. 

 In the construction of its nest it cuts out cir- 

 cular holes from the leaves of roses, petals of 

 geraniums, and various other plants. Its eco- 

 nomy has been thus described : " The creature 

 — a short, stout, plain bee — mines a tubular 

 channel into some decayed woody substance, 

 boring in the direction of the fibre, making her 

 repository at the bottom sufficiently deep for 

 her purpose. She cuts from the leaf of a rose 

 several large pieces, often a half, conveying them 

 to the bottom of her cave, and rolling them up so 

 as to form a case : in this she deposits an egg. 

 The mouth of the cave is then covered with five 

 or six circular pieces of leaves ; fragments of wood 

 like sawdust are then lodged over them, and 

 the remainder of this channel filled up with 

 other patches of the leaf, requiring, perhaps, 

 twenty or more to accomplish it. It has been re- 

 marked of this tribe of insects, that they appear 

 to be possessed of habits approaching closely to 

 those of superior intellect. The pupae are some- 

 times, but rarely, captured ; the only apparent 



5 N 



