212 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



disable their prey, assistants to divide the prey into portable 

 portions, and the labourers or workers. The bite of these insects 

 is very severe, and so intense does it become by accumulation, that 

 large animals, when confined, have been overpowered and destroyed 

 by them. They have been known to kill the Python Natalensis, 

 the largest serpent in that part of the world ; and they are decidedly 

 aggressive in their habits. Their entrance into dwellings is known 

 by a simultaneous movement of all the rats, mice, lizards, and 

 cockroaches with which they may be infested. Even man has to get 

 out of their way, and the driver ant chases him from his home. 

 They are most useful in the economy of Nature ; they consume 

 much dead animal and vegetable matter which might otherwise 

 taint the atmosphere ; they tend to keep down the rapid increase 

 of noxious insects and vermin ; and they compel the inhabitants 

 to observe habits of comparative cleanliness, as a filthy town or 

 house is sure to be visited by them. 



FOSSORIAL HYMENOPTERA. 



The Hymenoptera thus termed belong to several well charac- 

 terised families. Some resemble the ants both in appearance and 

 in their habits ; others have a peculiar look about them, which 

 particularises them, and the rest resemble wasps. But although 

 these fossorial or excavating Hymenoptera difi"er so far as their 

 external characters are concerned, they have many mutual resem- 

 blances in their habits and methods of life. They are generally 

 very industrious insects, are gifted with great constructive powers, 

 and are animated with a wonderful amount of instinct and fore- 

 sight in the preparation for the subsistence of their young. But 

 it must be understood that this last gift only pertains to the 

 females, which are always armed with a sting, for the males do 

 not trouble themselves about their young in any way. These 

 Hymenoptera excavate the earth and walls, and sometimes pene- 

 trate branches of trees and stems of bushes, so as to make safe 

 places and shelters for their larvae. They are furniahed with 

 cutting and toothed mandibles, and their legs are covered with spines, 

 which can act like rakes, and they use these working implements 



