HYMENOPTERA. 107 



HYMENOPTERA. 



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

 suborder differ from all other insects in liaving, in the liigher and 

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

 ward upon and intimatelj^ 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, Avith 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 larvjxj in their general form are more unlike 

 the adult insects than in any other suborder, while the pupae, 

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

 The larva? are short, cylindrical, footless (excepting the young 

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

 abdominal legs like Lepidopterous larva?), worm-like grubs, 

 which are helpless, and have to be fed by the i)revision of the 

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

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

 thick. 



The Hymenoptera exhibit, according to Professor Dana, the 

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



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

 tlie latter division enibvacing all the other suborders except the Coleoptera. His 

 Ametnmorphota //exo;;orfrt contained the wingless hexapoda; while the Ametamnr- 

 phota polypoda comprise the iMyrlO))ods, and the A. octopoda the Arachnids. Lin- 

 nfcus* Aptera (with numerous feet) are equivalent to the Myriopods,and his Aptvra 

 (with 8-14 feet) to the Arachnids. In Fabricius' system the Eteutheratd are equiva- 

 lent to the Coleoptera ; the f'^;o»«<« to the Orthoptera; the Si/nistata to the 'Scuvoii- 

 tera; the Piezata to the Hymenoptera; the Odonata to theLibeliuIidw; the Gtos.iaia 

 to the Lepidoptera; the Ilhyngota to the Hemiptera; the Antliata to the Dijitera. 

 The ^fitosata are the Myriopods, and the Unogatn, the Arachnids. In Latreille's 

 system the Suctoria, or Fleas, are now referred to the Diptera; the Parasita or 

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



