164 TRAMSFORIJATIONS OF INSECTS. 



implanted in them by Nature. This obhgation could not exist 

 without bringing with it the necessity for, and the desire of, 

 labour ; without exciting maternal love, and many instincts verging 

 upon reason. The smallest amount of intelligence requires a very 

 perfect organisation for its production, and so does a high order of 

 instinct. Mechanical appliances, implements, tools, and industry 

 are requisite to produce good work, and they are only given by 

 Nature to those creatures which are intelligent enough to use them. 



The Hytnawptcra are the most highly endowed of all insects, 

 yet they often live for a time in apparently most miserable con- 

 ditions ; and parallel instances are not uncommon in the vertebrate 

 animal kingdom — for the most gifted birds can only at first exist, 

 thanks to their parents ; but many less favoured kinds, like the 

 gallinaceous birds, for instance, run about and take care of them- 

 selves soon after they escape from the q.%%. 



In spite of the great differences which exist between the 

 principal types of the order now under consideration — differences 

 in the shape and external character of the larvae and the adults ; 

 differences in the internal organisation ; differences in the pro- 

 gress of development, in the kind of life, in the diet, and in the 

 condition of existence of the species — all the insects of this great 

 zoological division have common characters, w^hich are readily 

 distinguishable. 



The Hyiiicnoptcra have four membranous wings (whence their 

 name — I'jujjr, membrane ; irrepov, wing), which are free from scales, 

 and they are marked with more or less numerous nervures, which 

 usually do not form a reticulation. The wings, which are rather 

 small in relation to the bulk of the body, are usually perfectly 

 transparent. Sometimes they have a violet hue ; but more fre- 

 quently they are dusky in colour. The wrings characterise the 

 Hymcnoptcra; and the ancients called them — as the moderns do — 

 " flies with four wings." 



These insects have stoutly formed heads, and veiy large eyes 

 upon the sides of them. Usually there are three ocelli on the 

 forehead. The antennae differ in their general structure, even 

 amongst the species of a genus, and, as might be anticipated, in 

 families also. Their mouths arc formed for nibbling or crushing, 

 and also for suction. All the structures are free, and are more 



