Lyda
A genus of Sawflies, the larvae of which do considerable damage to trees. The larvae have no prolegs, but at the end of the body are two organs some-what like true legs, and with the help of these organs they move along slowly. They are usually semi-social, spinning a web in common over twigs and leaves, but also each spinning a separate tube for itself within the web, in which it lives. They become pupae in the soil. L. nemoralis and L. Pyri injure Plums and other stone-fruit trees, Apple and Pear-trees, &c., and they also eat Hawthorn; other species feed on Willows, Birches, and Alder, and several (L. campestris, L. erythrocephala, &c.) do very considerable injury to conifers. The habits of the larvae facilitate their destruction in the webs, the appearance of which is shown at Fig. 493.