404 BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



to make their nests in heaps of stones, or similar localities, and these are the fiercest of their 

 kind. Generally, the Humble Bees are quiet and inoffensive, even permitting their nest to be 

 laid open and the cells extracted, without offering to molest the invader. The OBANGE- 

 TAILED HUMBLE BEE, however, is large and fierce ; and possessing a powerful sting, with a 

 very large poison-gland, becomes no despicable foe to those who offend it, or whom it chooses 

 to consider as foes. 



The nests of the Humble Bees are not permanent like those of the hive bee, but perish 

 during the winter, the only survivors being a few females, who are destined to found fresh 

 colonies in the succeeding year. 



Another species, the BANDED BEE, is so greatly in use in Egypt, and is fed by being 

 placed on board of barges, and transported down the Nile, so as to insure a bountiful supply 

 of honey. The owners of the hives pay a small sum to the owners of the boats, and, in return, 

 their bees are carried along the fertile stream during the honey season, and afterwards 

 returned with full combs. Payment is mostly in kind, thus insuring the proper fulfilment of 

 the compact. 



For want of space, we are compelled to pass by many interesting Hymenoptera, such as 

 the Leaf-cutter Bees, the Wood-borers, and the Mason Bees, each of which creatures would 

 demand more space than can be given to the whole of the insects. 



STREPSIPTERA. 



A VERY small, but very remarkable order now comes before our notice the STREPSTPTERA, 

 Comprising insects of very minute proportions, all of which are parasitic upon the bodies of 

 different bees and wasps, five, and even six, having been discovered within a single wasp. 

 Their presence may generally be discovered by the peculiar swollen aspect of the abdomen ; 

 and, in many cases, the heads of the parasites may be seen protruding from between the 

 segments. 



The name Strepsiptera signifies, literally, twisted wings, and is given to these creatures 

 because the front pair of wings are transformed into short and twisted appendages, quite use- 

 less for flight or for defending the second pair of wings. These are almost disproportionately 

 large, membranous, and with a kind of milky look as the insect flies through the air. The 

 eye is composed of a very few lenses, in some species only fifteen on each side, two or three 

 thousand being the ordinary average among insects. The antennae are of a remarkable form, 

 branched and forked like the horns of a stag. The thorax is enormously large, and the abdo- 

 men of very small size ; but, as the creature does not appear to take food during its life in the 

 perfect state, this is of little moment. Curiously enough, the larvae of these insects are them- 

 selves subject to internal parasites ; and it is very possible, that they, in their turn, may be 

 infested by other creatures less than itself, and equally disagreeable. 



BUTTERFLIES -AND MOTHS; LEPIDOPTERA. 



WE now come to an order in which are included the most beautiful of all insects, namely, 

 the Butterflies and Moths. On account of the feather-like scales with which their wings are 

 covered, and to which the exquisite coloring is due, they are technically called Lepidoptera, 

 or scale- winged insects. 



The wings are four in number, and it is occasionally found that the two pairs are con- 

 nected together by a strong bristle in one, and a hook-like appendage in the other, so that the 



