THE PURPLE-HORN SAW FLY. 



389 



This is a really splendid insect. The head and thorax are 

 metallic green, just like green foil, and the abdomen is bur- 

 nished blue, glossed with green. The legs are of the same 

 colour as the abdomen, and the antenna; are purple, for which 

 reason I have given it the specific name of coccinocerus, or 

 "purple-horn." The wings are brownish, but glossed with 

 green. 



Our last example of the Saw Flies is the Derecyrta jnctipennis. 

 The example which is here drawn is in the British Museum, 

 and was brought from Ega, in the Amazons, by Mr. Bates. 



It is a pretty though not a splendid insect, and derives its 

 beauty quite as much from the wings as from the body. The 

 head is shining and black, looking very much like a little black 





i 



Fig. 189. — Derecyrta pictipennis. 

 (Yellow and brown.) 



glass bead. The thorax is yellow, and so is the abdomen, with 

 the exception of a black tip. The wings are mostly brown, but 

 there is a broad yellow patch across the centre, and another, of 

 a similar colour, near the base. The lower wings are coloured 

 in a very similar manner, except that they are more translucent 

 than the upper pair. 



Another group now comes before us, namely, the Urocerida?. 

 This word literally signifies "horn-tailed," and is given to the 

 insects because the ovipositor projects from the end of the 

 abdomen like a short stout horn. At first sight no organs 

 appear to be more unlike each other than the ovipositor of the 

 Uroceridae and that of the Saw Flies. A careful examination, 



