A BORING FLY.
On Saturday last, as a carpenter in our establishment was planing a piece of Baltic pine, the head of an iusect was seen to protrudo from a round hole in tho timber. JK 'proved to be alive, and was over an inch in length, somewaa.6 resembling a wasp. Ift wai sent to Profeiaor Hutton, and ha pronounced it a species of hymonopL u ra, a distinguishing characteristic of which ia an appeudfga at the tail either in tha form of a sting or borer. The order comprise boss, ant 1 ?, gall-flie^, wasps, &0., andposBwaes ins^inoi; ia a higher tfegroe than any other kind of insect. Thi3 species belongs to th* borors, tho next class to the sa-i flies. At the extremity of tbe female's abdomen there is an instrument which appears to combine the pro. perbies of tho saw, file, and gouge, with which it bores holes in wood, where it deposits its eggts. Tbe grub resides in the interior of trees, which it perforates in various directions, often causing great destruction to the pine forests. After remaining about 12 months in the wood it develops into a fly. Prof ese or Hutfcon says that thia specimen is one which has never before been got in New Zealand, and ho ia inclined to think, judging from the fresh appearance of the hole in which it wan found, that ib could not have inhabited the wood for a whole yeir. He was pleased to receivo the specimen for tbe Museum,
A BORING FLY.
Otago Witness, Issue 1449, 30 August 1879, Page 7
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