CHAPTER VI.

HYMENOPTERA.

STINGERS AND PIERCERS.

HABITS OF SOME OF THE HYMENOPTERA. SAWFLIES AND SLUGS. ELM SAW-FLY.- FIR SAW-FLY. - VINE SAW-FLY. ROSE-BUSH SLUG. PEAR-TREE SLUG. HORN-TAILED WOOD-WASPS. GALL-FLIES. CHALCIDIANS. BARLEY INSECT and Joint-WORM.

B

EES, wasps, ants, saw-flies, and ichneumon-flies, of many different kinds, together with other insects, unknown by any common names in the English language, belong to the order HYMENOPTERA. Their wings are four in number, are traversed by a few branching veins, and are more or less transparent, or of a thin and filmy texture, as expressed by the name of the order, which signifies membranaceous wings. They fly swiftly, and are able to keep on the wing much longer than any other insects, because their bodies are light and compact, and their wings very thin, narrow, and withal very strong. They have four nippers or jaws; the upper pair being horny, stout, and fitted for biting or cutting; the lower are longer and softer, and, with the lower lip, which they cover, form a kind of beak or sucker. Their antennæ vary in form and length; but are most often cylindrical, and of equal thickness to the end. The males have no weapons of offence or defence except their jaws. The females are armed with a venomous sting, concealed within the end of the hind body, or are provided with a piercer, of some sort, for boring or sawing the holes wherein their eggs are deposited. Hence the insects of this order may be divided into two groups, Stingers and Piercers. Though both of them undergo a complete transformation in coming to maturity, they differ from each other in the early states of their existence.