OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 29 



The Stinging Hymenoptera are separated into four very distinct, 

 tribes : 



1st. Bees fAnthopMla — ^liower-lovers). 



2d. True Wasps f Biploptera — double-wings). 



3d. Wood and Sand Wasps fFossores — diggers). 



4th. Ants (Heterogyna — different females). 



Each of these tribes includes several families, the peculiarities of 

 which will be noticed in succeeding chapters. The Piercing insects 

 composing the second division of the Order are distinguished chiefly 

 by the absence of the poison gland. In the higher families the form of 

 the body and the venation of the wings are much like those of bees 

 and wasps, the most obvious difference being the more lengthened ab- 

 domen and the excerted and often conspicuous ovipositor. The more 

 lowly forms of the Piercing species have the abdomen joined to the 

 thorax by a wide base instead of a slender pedicel, the wings are more 

 net-veined, and in their immature stages they approach certain groups 

 of the Lepidoptera. The section is subdivided into two comprehen- 

 sive tribes : 



1st. Four-winged Parasites fUntomophaga — insect-eaters). 



2d. Saw-flies and Wood-borers fPhytopJiaga — plant-eaters). 



The Plant-eaters include almost all the insects in the Order tbat 

 are seriously injurious. All the others are either beneficial — some of 

 them in a very high degree — or neutral in their relations to man. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Order HYMENOPTERA. Section AcuLE ATA. 



Bees fAntJiophilaJ. 



[Fig. 12.] 



Honey Bee. 



The Bees are very apppropriately termed the " Flower-lovers," since 

 they are, in all stages of their lives, wholly dependent upon the floral pro- 

 ducts, nectar and pollen, for their food. And in the economy of nature 

 this dependence is, to a great extent, mutual ; for while the Bees are seek- 

 in g sustenance for themselves and their young from flower to flower, 

 they are at the same time unconsciously assisting the latter to produce 

 good seed as a result of cross- fertilization, the pollen from the stamens 

 of one plant or blossom being carried by them to the pistils of another. 



