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canara 
bibed in some unknown manner through the 
membranous skin of the egg, which in this 
anomalous way is nourished and enlarged. In 
other instances the extravasated juices produce 
galls, which afford at once food and lodging to 
the young larvee.” 
The larva of saw-flies are often called false 
caterpillars or pseudo-caterpillars, in consequence 
of their possessing a general resemblance to the 
larve of moths and butterflies, in at once the 
form of their body, its colours, the exterior dis- 
positions of its dermis, and the great number of 
their feet ; and they are the more liable to be 
mistaken for true caterpillars, that the two 
classes of depredators are often at work together 
in ravaging the same plant. The segments of 
their body generally amount to twelve ; but the 
incisures are indistinct, and are liable to be con- 
founded with the transverse wrinkles which 
abound upon the whole surface. Most of the 
larve have only one colour; yet many are 
marked with bright and varied colours; and 
so great a change of colour often takes place at 
moulting, an old colour being succeeded by a 
totally different one, that if is impossible for a 
general observer to recognise the same indivi- 
dual. Such species, too, as are furnished with 
tubercles or spines in the earlier stages of their 
larva existence, lose them at their last moult, 
| and become smooth. All the larve, like the 
saw-flies themselves, are sluggish and compara- 
tively inactive, seldom moving from the places 
of their original or periodical fixture, except 
when they require a new source or additional 
supply of food. Some lodge in the interior of 
fruits, and cause them speedily to decay ; and 
some live ‘in the interior of tender shoots, and 
feed on the immature pith; but the greater 
number live exposed on the foliage of plants,— 
and when not engaged in feeding, or when ap- 
prehensive of danger, most of them roll themselves 
into a circle, sometimes with the tail elevated in 
the centre. “It is of great importance to be 
able to distinguish the larve of saw-flies from 
the caterpillars of moths and butterflies, as the 
preventive or remedial treatment required for 
the one is often very different from what it 
might be desirable to adopt in regard to the 
other; and this distinction is easily made. 
True caterpillars, that is, the larvae of butter- 
flies and moths, have never more than 16 feet ; 
while the larvee of saw-flies, or false caterpillars, 
have generally from 18 to 22; a few have only 
6, a circumstance which again distinguishes 
them from true caterpillars, in which the num- 
ber of these parts is never below 10. Another 
mark of distinction is afforded by the structure 
of the abdominal feet, ‘The pectoral ones are al- 
ways nearly alike in both. In lepidopterous 
larva, the former are surmounted by a cornet of 
small hooks, which are never found in those of 
false caterpillars, as their abdominal legs are 
simple membranous protuberances. This differ- 
SAW-FLIES. 
ence of structure occasions a difference in habit, 
which may often enable us to determine at first 
sight to which of the two orders in question a 
caterpillar belongs, when it is seen even at a dis- 
tance feeding on a leaf. The true caterpillar 
clings to the leaf by its abdominal legs, while the 
head is left free, and often borne elevated, the 
pectoral legs being used merely as points of sup- 
port. In false caterpillars, exactly the reverse of 
this takes place. The pectoral legs embrace the 
leaf, so that the head is kept close to it ; while 
the abdomen, unprovided with prehensory ap- 
pendages, is left quite free, and is generally 
borne upwards, and not unfrequently twisted 
into various singular postures, sometimes curved 
inwards, at other times arched, and occasion- 
ally assuming the form of the letter 8.” 
The pine saw-fly, called Lophyrus by Latreille, 
comprises three known British species, which 
sometimes work serious havoc upon pine and 
fir plantations. The antenne of all the species 
comprise about 22 joints in the male, and from 
16 to 18 in the female, and are bipectinated in the 
former and simply serrated internally in the lat- 
ter ; the mandibles are strong,—the one uniden- 
tate, and the other tridentate near the top ; the 
maxillary palpe are long and six-jointed; and 
the ocelli are three, and placed nearly ina straight 
line. The larva of all the three species—severally 
called LZ. pind, L. rufus, and L. pallidus—prey 
on the Scotch pine ; but, like all others of the 
family, they considerably change their appear- 
ance and their colours at successive periods of 
their growth, and may, for all practical purposes, 
be recognised far more readily by their habits 
and their general structure than by their speci- 
fic characters. “These caterpillars,” says Mr. 
Duncan, in reference to those of L. pint, “ at- 
tain a large size when compared with the perfect 
insect. Their voracity is very great ; they seem, 
in fact, to eat with scarcely any intermission. 
They assemble in family parties consisting of 
from 50 to upwards of 100 individuals, and ap- 
pear to take pleasure in carrying on all their | 
operations in company. They place themselves 
along the leaves, and commencing at the top eat 
downwards to the sheath; very young larve 
leave the midrib standing. When the branch is 
suddenly struck, or they are otherwise disturbed, 
they quickly raise the head and anterior part of 
the body, and emit a drop of fluid from the 
mouth; and it is curious to observe a large 
number doing this simultaneously, and many 
times in succession, if the annoyance be repeated. 
The fluid discharged has nearly the same smell 
and consistency as the resinous juice of the trees 
on which they feed. The moultings take place 
exactly in the same way as in other caterpillars, 
and the exuviz are observed in great quantities 
adhering to the branches which they have passed 
over.” ‘“ Many of these caterpillars,” he con- 
tinues, in reference to those of all the three spe- 
cies, “ fall a sacrifice to the attacks of ichneu- 
——— — eae 
