110 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



angle and receiving tlie second recurrent nervi;re, an imperfect 

 fourth cellule sometimes exists ; feet rather short. 



Ohs. In the present order of insects called Hymen optera by 

 Linne, are many species whose manners ^re highly interesting: 

 living together harmoniously in large communities, and hfboring 

 for the attainment of a common object, such species exhibit such 

 eminent proofs of intelligence, as to stagger the vain theorist in 

 the midst of his speculations, and to render insecure the distinc- 

 tion which he has endeavored to establish between the blindness 

 of instinct and the splendid nature of reason. 



But the far greater portion associate by pairs, in their perfect 

 state, for the important purpose of continuing their race, and of 

 these are the species of the genus under consideration. It has 

 been long known that the Plulanthi are parasitic ; the female digs 

 a hole in the earth for the reception of her egg, with which she 

 places the body of an insect that she had killed for the nurture 

 of her young ; she then completes her task by covering the hole 

 with earth. Latreille gives the following interesting account of 

 the P. opivorus of Europe. It is a dangerous enemy of the 

 domestic bee. The female digs a horizontal gallery about a foot 

 in depth in a sloping bank of light earth exposed to the influence 

 of the sun ; she separates the earth, and carries it to the surface 

 by means of her mandibles and feet. When the nest is thus 

 completed, the parent visits the neighboring flowers for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining a honey bee ; she seizes her victim, and kills it 

 by piercing' it with her sting at the junction of the head with 

 the thorax, or of the thorax with the abdomen, and transports it 

 to the bottom of the gallery. As each female deposits at leaist 

 five or six eggs, the consequence is that the same number of bees 

 must be destroyed. In an extent of ground about one hundred 

 and twenty feet long, Mr. Latreille counted from fifty to sixty 

 females actively employed in making their nests, these of course 

 destroyed about three hundred bees. Let us then suppose a 

 surface of country about six miles square, a fiftieth part of which 

 would afford a proper situation for the operations of the females 

 of this species o'f Philanthus ; these would be a sufficient number 

 to destroy fifteen thousand of these useful insects. _ The eggs are 

 white, nearly cylindrical, rounded at the two ends. The larvae 



