THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



an 



L. fulva is found in old trees, in the New Forest, near Lyndhurst. 



L- sanguinolenta has been taken in Scotland, on the trunk of a tree 

 by Mr. Champion. 



L. livida is found on flowery banks in the South of England. 



Anaplodera sexguttata is found on flowers in the New Forest. 



Grammoptera tabacicolor is found on flowers in Burnt Wood and 

 Llangollen, also in hedges. 



G. analis is found in hedges and on flowers, in the South of England. 



G. ruficornis, the larva of this species feed in the solid stems of the 

 ivy, where I have found it, and the perfect insect is abundant on the flowers 

 of Hawthorn. 



G. UStulata is on flowers in the New Forest. 



G. atra ? I captured a variety of ruficornis at Castle Mill, on Umbelliferse, 

 which answers this description. 



HYMENOPTERA. 



Sirices are the most destructive of the wood-eating British Hymenoptera. 



Sirex gigas is a very formidable looking creature. The female is armed 

 with a long ovipositor, a suitable instrument for depositing her ova in cracks 

 or crevices of pine trees. It is termed the Terebra or aculeus. This pro- 

 jecting sting {Aculeus exsertus) — Latreille calls it a terebra — is found in 

 all the Hymenoptera. The chief character by which the terebra is distin- 

 guished is by the presence of two exterior valves or sheaths, and the central 

 aculeus or sting which projects. In Sirex in which the sting projects, we 

 find likewise the exterior valves and the central aculeus. This again con- 

 sists of the superior channel, and the bristle lying within it. All three are 

 dilated at the apex, the channel is split, and that portion as well as the bristle 

 upon its entire margin are beset with short serrated teeth, there is a passage 

 in the aculeus, but so narrow that an egg cannot pass down it, and in this 

 cavity how could it move along ? The egg merely slides down the superior 

 channel, and is pushed on by the inferior bristle pressing against the channel 

 from the base outwards towards the apex, pushing the egg before it. In all 

 insects provided with an aculeus or an ovipositor, the vagina opens at its 

 base, so that its canal passes directly into that of the ovipositor. The valves 

 and spines of this apparatus are consequently nothing more than the horny 

 bone which lies within the vagina, and which is then prolonged beyond it. 

 The male is distinguished by the absence of these appendages. This insect 

 abounds in Dunham Park and the neighbourhood, where it feeds in larch 

 and Pinus sylveUris, also Wellingtonia. The larvse feed in the interior of 

 the trees. A few Wellingtonia were planted on an estate at Bowdon, they 



