PACKARD] RELATIOIS^S OF INSECTS TO MAN. 75 



me at his leisure ; when he had withdrawn his sting of his 

 own accord I irritated and jjlaced him on the hand of a 

 domestic, who Avas not expecting to be stung, but the wound 

 did not cause him much pain. I then made the wasp sting 

 me a second time, when I scarcely felt it. The poisonous 

 fluid was nearly exhausted by the former experiments, and I 

 could not induce the wasp to make a fourth w^ound. This 

 experiment and others, which people will probably not care 

 to repeat, have taught me that where the animals are undis- 

 turbed the sting is never left in the wound. The sting is 

 flexible, and is not driven straight in, but forms a curved or 

 zigzag wound. If the insect is compelled to withdraw it 

 suddenly, the friction is sufficient to retain the sting, which 

 is somewhat hooked, and tears it off. On the other hand, if 

 the animal is not disturbed, it withdraws the sting grad- 

 ually. " 



There is quite a difference in the poisonous qualities of 

 different kinds of bees as well as wasps, and in the size and 

 strength of the sting. We have been used to catching wild 

 bees and wasps, without being stung, by firmly grasping the 

 hind body or abdomen with our fingers, rendering the sting 

 powerless. 



How useful the sting is to bees is shown in the honey bee, 

 which uses it as a weapon of offence as well as defence, in 

 stinging the caterpillars of the bee moth, Avhich are careful 

 to run concealed galleries in the wax to avoid their thrusts ; 

 and in killing the drones. 



The term waspish is derived from the irritable nature of 

 those insects, whose brusque and defiant manners are doubt- 

 less in large part due to the consciousness that they are well 

 armed. But in many wasps the sting is not only a weapon 

 of defence, but of prime importance in maintaining the ex- 

 istence of their young and consequently of the life of the 

 species. We have spent hours watching a Sphex wasp 

 {Sphex ichneumonea, Fig. 59), a large rust-red species 



11 



