OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 37 



CHA.PTER X. 

 Order hymenoptera. Section Aculeata. 



TRUE WASPS AND DIGGER WASPS. 



IFig. 15. 



> 

 Digger-wasp, ^Aj'ytis speciosus. 



The True wasps are termed DiPLOPrERA (double wings), because 

 when not flying the upper wings are always longitudinally folded. 

 This manner of carrying the wings is the most obvious structural 

 distinction between this group and the Fossorial or Digging wasps. 

 In this tribe of insects the body wall, or external envelope, is harder, 

 and, as a rule, smoother, than that of bees, although some species have 

 parts of the body clothed with a velvety pubescence. The neck is very 

 short and the head wide at the top, giving a somewhat triangular shape 

 to the face. The jaws are broad and strong, with sharp teeth, while the 

 inner jaws and tongue, though shorter than those of bees, are not so 

 flexible, still admit of the extraction of nectar from the more open 

 flower cups. Both pairs of palpi are well developed, and on each side 

 of the tongue is a similar supplementary organ called a parYaglossa. 



The eyes are large and hollowed out in the middle (see Fig 2, pt. 

 1st), and the ocelli are unusually prominent. The legs are mostly 

 smooth and cylindrical, but the shanks are provided with long, thorn- 

 like spurs, and the joints of the feet are also spiny. The females have 

 a formidable sting, but the males, as with nearly all other insects, are 

 unarmed. 



The larv.iB are much like those of bees, except that they are some- 

 what larger on the anterior end. They are reared in cells of paper or 

 mud, for wasps are incapable of excreting wax, and are fed mainly on 

 animal food — such as the soft bodies of flies, larvse, bits of fresh meat 

 and the like — few, if any, being fed on tbe honey and pollen that form 

 the gole nourishment of the mature insects. 



