3i6 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



very great number of authors have written express treatises on 

 bees, periodical works have been published relating exclusively 

 to their management and economy, and learned societies have 

 been established for the sole purpose of conducting researches on 

 this subject." When we have such facts as these before us one 

 is enabled to form some estimate as to what the literature of the 

 entire order Hymenoptera would amount to as a whole. 



Nor has the historical naturalist neglected the wasps in his 

 labors, for the literature upon these remarkable insects is likewise 

 very voluminous. They constitute the true Hymenoptera acu- 



leata, Kirby using the 

 term Diploptera, divid- 

 ing them into three 

 families. Of these, the 

 social wasps ( Vespidce) 

 are represented by a 

 number of genera in 

 various parts of the 

 world,containing a host 

 of interesting species. 

 Some of these are of 

 small size, while others 

 stand among the big- 

 gest of the entire group. 

 One form found in 

 China and Japan meas- 

 ures two inches across 

 the wings. Many of 

 these wasps sting with 

 great severity, and it 

 has been related of 

 Mitchell, the Australian explorer, that he was stung by a species 

 found in that country, and the pain caused thereby forced him to 

 scream out with agony. It had the effect of temporarily paralyz- 

 ing his leg, and the great spot on the limb occasioned by the in- 

 jected poison did not disappear for at least six months. Many 

 wasps are brilliantly colored, while the external structural parts 

 of others are extremely unique. For example, the Ilasaridcs of 

 Africa and Australia is a family in which the antennae present a 

 great variety of shapes, some of them even being clubbed, while 

 others are extremely long and slender. Numerous species of 

 wasps and hornets are fossorial by habit, either constructing un- 

 derground burrows for themselves or else occupying those formed 

 by other insects. Some of these types are very large, some are 

 small, some are solitary by habit, others live in communities. 

 We have one big species of fossorial wasp that I have studied at 



Fig. 1. Bumblebee upon Dogwood Flower. 



From a photograph taken life-size by Dr. Shufeldt 



and considerably reduced. 



