FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



HYMENOPTERA 



To the layman these are the Saw-flies, Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps; the last-mentioned name referring principally to 

 the Vespoidea and Sphecoidea, and only in a hazy way to 

 the large number of other Hymenoptera which are neither 

 ants nor bees. The State Geological and Natural History 

 Survey of Connecticut has recently published a large 

 Guide to the Hymenoptera of that State by H. L. Viereck 

 and others. The more special students of taxonomy are 

 referred to this and from it I have drawn freely for the 

 few remarks on classification which space permits us. 



The notes on wing-venation refer to the front wings. 

 The following names (see the text-figure) are the ones 



used here: A, stigma; B, costal vein; C, subcostal vein; 

 D, marginal vein; E, transverse cubital veins; F, basal 

 vein; G and H, first and second recurrent veins; /, subdis- 

 coidal vein; /, discoidal vein; K, cubital vein; a, marginal 

 cell; b, median cell; c, d, e, and/, first, second, third, and 

 fourth submarginal or cubital cells; g, submedian cell; 

 h, i, j, first, second, and third discoidal cells. 



Hymenoptera are divided into a number of super- 

 families, which may be roughly characterized as follows, 

 the order not being natural but for convenience. 



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