370 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



and depend wholly upon the instinctive foresight of their parents, 

 or the daily care of attentive nurses, for their food and habita- 

 tions. When fully grown, nearly all of these young insects spin 

 oblong oval cocoons, wherein they change to chrysalids, and 

 finally to winged insects. A few, however, never obtain wings 

 in the adult state ; but these are mostly certain neuter and female 

 ants, the males of which possess wings. With the exception of 

 the white ants, belonging to another order, it is only among Hy- 

 menopterous insects that we find certain individuals constantly 

 barren, and hence called neuters. These form the principal part 

 of those communities of bees, of wasps, and of ants, that unite 

 in making a habitation for the whole swarm, and in providing a 

 stock of provisions for their own use, and for that of their help- 

 less brood ; and nearly or quite all the labor falls upon these in- 

 dustrious neuters, whose care and affection for the young, which 

 they foster and shelter, could not be greater were they their own 

 offspring. 



Hymenopterous insects love the light of the sun ; they take 

 wing only during the daytime, and remain at rest in the night, and 

 in dull and wet weather. They excel all other insects in the 

 number and variety of their instincts, which are wonderfully dis- 

 played in the methods employed by them in providing for the 

 comfort and the future wants of their offspring. In the introduc- 

 tory chapter some remarks have already been made on their hab- 

 its and economy ; and the limits of this essay will not allow me 

 now to enlarge upon them. I shall not, therefore, attempt to 

 show how admirably the Hymenoptera arc fitted, in the formation 

 of all their parts, for their appointed tasks. If any of my read- 

 ers are curious to learn this, and to witness for themselves the 

 various arts, resources, and contrivances resorted to by these in- 

 sects, let them go abroad in the summer, and watch them during 

 their labors. They will then see the saw-fly making holes in 

 leaves with her double key-hole saws, and the horn-tail boring 

 with her auger into the solid trunks of trees ; — they will not fail 

 to observe and admire the untiring scrutiny of the ichneumon- 

 flies, those little busy-bodies, for ever on the alert, and prying 

 into every place to find the lurking caterpillar, grub, or maggot, 

 wherein to thrust their eggs ; — the curious swellings produced 



