HYTVIENOPTEEA. 107 



HYMENOPTERA. 



The Bees, "Wasps, Saw-flies, Ants, and other members of this 

 suborder ditTer from all other insects in having, in the higher and 

 more typical forms, the basal joint of the abdomen thrown for- 

 ward upon and intimately united with the thorax. The head 

 is large, with large compound eyes, and three ocelli. The 

 mouth-parts are well developed both for biting, and feeding on 

 the sweets of plants, the ligula especially, used in lapping- 

 nectar, being greatly developed. The other regions of the 

 body are more distinct than in other insects ; the wings are 

 small but powerful, wij:h comparatively few and somewhat 

 irregular veins, adapted for powerful and long-sustained flights ; 

 and the genital appendages retracted, except in the Ichneu- 

 mon parasites and Saw-flies, within the body, are in the female 

 modified into a sting. 



The transformations of this suborder are the most complete 

 of all insects ; the larvre in their general form are more unlike 

 the adult insects than in an}' other suborder, Avhile the pupaj, 

 on the other hand, most clearly approximate to the imago. 

 The larvpe are short, cylindrical, footless (excepting the young 

 of the Saw-flies, the lowest family, which are provided with 

 abdominal legs like Lepidopterous larvie), worm-like grubs, 

 "which are helpless, and have to be fed by the prevision of the 

 parent. The pupa has the limbs free, and is generally contained 

 in a thin silken cocoon ; that of the Saw-flies, hoAvever, being- 

 thick. 



The Ilymenoptera exhibit, according to Professor Dana, the 

 normal size of the insect-type. "This archetypic size is be- 



NOTE to page lOG.— Ray divided the Ilexapods into Coleopfera and Aneloptera, 

 the latter division embracing all the other suborders except the Coleoptcra. His 

 Ametamorphota Hexajyodd Qont-MnaX the wingless hcxapoda; while the Ametamor- 

 plwta pobjpoda comprise the Myriopods, and the A. octopnda the Arachnids. Lin- 

 nasus' Aptera (with numerous feet) are equivalent to the Myriopods, and his Aptera 

 (witli !^lt feet) to the Aracdniids. In Fabricius' system the Kleutheriita are equiva- 

 lent to the Coleoptcra; the l//o«f/<« to tlieOrthoptcra; the ,SV/«f.s'!:n<« to the Neurop- 

 tera; the IHczata to tlie Hynienoptera; the Odonaia to tlieLibellulida;; tlie Glnamta 

 to the Lcpidoptera; the lihyngota to tlie llemiptera; the Antliatn to the Diptera. 

 The Mitosata arc the Myriopods, and the UHt,>iata, the Arachnids. In Latreille's 

 eystem the Suctor in, or Fleas, are now referred to the Diiitera; the Parasita or 

 Lice, to the llemiptera, and the Thysanura to the Neuroptera. 



