ORIGIN OF THE STING. 185 



their owner to probe the deep nectaries of certain orchids. 

 These changes in form and size are certainly correlated with 

 important diflerences in habits, and the evolutionist can as 

 riglitly say that the structural changes were induced by use and 

 disuse and change of habits and the environment of the animal, 

 as on the other hand the advocate of special creation claims 

 tliat the two are simply correlated, and that is all we know 

 about it. 



Another set of organs, placed on quite another region of the 

 body, unite to form the sting of the bee, or its equivalent the 

 ovipositor of other hyraenopterous insects, such as the Ichneu- 

 mon fly (Fig. 214), the "saw" of the saw fly, and the augur of 

 the Cicada. These are all formed on the same plan, arising 

 early in the larval stage as three pairs of little tubercles, which 

 ultimately form long blades, the inner- 

 most constituting the true ovipositor. 

 We have found that one pair of these 

 organs forms the "spring" of the Po- 

 dura, and that in these insects it is 

 three jointed, and thus is morphologi- 

 cally a pair of legs soldered together 

 at their base. We would venture to 

 regard the ovipositor of insects as 

 probably representing three pairs of 



abdominal legs, comparable with 



., <• 4^u HT • 1 J 214. Ichneumon Fly. 



those of the Myriopods, and even, as 



we have suggested in another place, the three pairs of jointed 

 spinnerets of spiders. Thus the ovipositor of the bee has a his- 

 tory, and is not apparently a special creation, but a structure 

 gradually developed to subserve the use of a defensive organ. 



So the organs of special sense in insects are in most cases 

 simply altered hairs. The hairs themselves are modified epithe- 

 lial cells. The eyes of insects, simple and compound, are at 

 first simply epithelial cells, modified for a special purpose, and 

 even the egg is but a, modified epithelial cell attached to the 

 \yalls of the ovary, which in tui-n is morphologically but a gland. 

 Thus Nature deals in simples, and with her units of structure 

 elaborates as her crowning work a temple in which the mind of 

 man, formed in the image of God, may dwell. Her results are 

 not the less marvellous because we are beginning to dimly trace 

 the process by which they arise. It should not lessen our awe 



