Hymenoptera 



2/9 



tinguished by the short pronotum which does not reach back to the 

 forewing-bases. In structural details the genera of the family show- 

 great variation. These insects make nests in the ground or in wood, 

 and capture insects of various orders which serve as food for their 

 larvi ; they are abundant in all parts of the world ('194). 



Vespidae.— The FeipiJa or true Wasps are distinguished by the 

 longitudinal folding of their wings when at rest — a character not 

 found among the ants or digging-wasps. The feelers have always 

 thirteen segments in the male and twelve in the female ; the eyes 

 are kidney-shaped and the tongue is concave or bifid at its tip. 

 The pronotum reaches back on either side of the mesothorax to the 

 base of the fore-wing. In the sub-family Eumenina (Solitary Wasps) 

 the tongue is elongate, longer than the mandibles though these are 

 often very long and grooved ; the middle shin has one spine at the 

 tip, and the claws of the feet are toothed ; the species usually make 

 earthen nests and capture and store caterpillars and other insects 

 as food for their larvae ; the females being all fully developed there 

 are no "workers," ^ ^ 



and no true social 

 communities, 

 though individ- 

 uals of many 

 species form 

 colonies by build- 

 i n g their cells 

 close together. 

 Among the 

 Vesp'tnje (Social 

 W asps) the 

 tongue is shorter, ^"^-.'55;— Waxen cells of Honey-bee^ 



the mandibles are 

 never very long or 

 grooved, the middle shin has two spines at the tip, and the foot-claws 

 are simple ; undeveloped females or " workers " are found among nearly 

 all the species, which live in true social communities making nests by 

 their united labour out of paper which they work up from vegetable 

 tissues, hunting for insects and gathering fragments of fruit wherewith 

 they feed their larva;. The VespidcX are distributed throughout tlie 

 world, but the species are much more numerous in the tropics than in 

 cooler regions ( 161-5)- 



Apidae. — The Afiid^t or Beks may be known from all other families 

 of Hymenoptera by being clothed with feathered hairs and by having 

 the basal segment of the hind foot Hat and broad — in many cases 

 as broad as the shin. Except in a few genera which, like the Wasps, 

 have the tongue concave at the tip. that organ is pointed; in the 

 higher bees such as the Humble-bees and Hive-bee it is very long 

 and serves as an elaborate sucking-organ (see pp. 18-19, *!*?• 'S)- 

 In the details of their form and habits the Bees show great diversity ; 



1 section ; h. 



in elevation. Natural size. From Benton, Bull, i 

 (n.s.), Div. Ent. U.S. Dept. Agr. 



