226 THE PHYLLOPHAGA. 



extremity of the abdomen and the legs red, and a 

 pair of minute white spots on the hinder margin of 

 the metathorax, which may be constantly found flying 

 about hedges and the borders of woods. A beautiful 

 pale green species, with golden eyes^ with the head 

 and upper part of the body more or less spotted 

 with black, and with delicate black lines along the 

 tibise, and narrow rings of the same colour at the tips 

 of the tarsal joints, is also very common about hedge- 

 banks, where it may often be taken with the fingers, 

 whilst engaged in ransacking the flowers for the 

 honeyed juices which constitute its food in the perfect 

 state. This is the Allantus scalaris. 



On examining one of these insects, we find that the 

 organs of the mouth are of the ordinary form, neither 

 the maxillas nor the labium having undergone any 

 modification to adapt them for suction, although the 

 principal food of the creatures consists of the juices 

 of flowers. The head is broad, and the thorax of 

 large size ; and the abdomen is attached to the hinder 

 margin of the metathorax by the whole width of its 

 base. But the most important point of structure is 

 that presented by the ovipositor of the females, which 

 is characteristic of the tribe of Hymenoptera to which 

 these insects belong. The last segment of the abdo- 

 men in this sex is deeply cleft beneath, and the fissure 

 is closed by the edges of a pair of horny plates, which, 

 when extracted, are found to be composed of two 

 joints. These are the sheaths of the ovipositor, which 

 lies between them, and is composed of a pair of 

 delicate valves most beautifully serrated throughout, 

 which are the representatives of the two lower bristles 

 of the sting, as already described. We look in vain, 

 however, for the superior channeled bristle, which 



