404 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



HYMENOPTERA. 



Stingers, and Pieeceks. — Habits of some of the Hymenoptera. — Saw- 

 Flies, AND Slugs. Elm Saw -Fly. Fir Saw-Fly. Vine Saw-Fly. Rose- 

 bush Slug. Pear-tree Slug. — Horn-tailed Wood-Wasps. — Gall-Flies. 

 — Chalcidians. Barley Insect and Joint-Worm. 



Bees, wasps, ants, saw-flies, and ichneumon-flies, of many- 

 different kinds, together with other insects, unknown by any 

 common names in the English language, belong to the order 

 Hymenoptera. Their wings are four in number, are traversed 

 by a few, branching veins, and are more or less transparent, or 

 of a thin and filmy texture, as expressed by the name of the 

 order, which signifies membranaceous wings. They fly' swiftly, 

 and are able to keep on the wing much longer than any other 

 insects, because their bodies are light, and compact, and their 

 wings very thin, narrow, and withal very strong. They have 

 four nippers or jaws; the upper pair being horny, stout, and 

 fitted for biting or cutting; the lower are longer and softer, 

 and, with the lower lip, which they cover, form a kind of beak 

 or sucker. Their antennaB vary in form and length ; but are 

 most often cylindrical, and of equal thickness to the end. 

 The males have no weapons of offence or defence except their 

 jaws. The females are armed with a venomous sting, con- 

 cealed within the end of the hind body, or are provided with 

 a piercer, of some sort, for boring or sawing the holes wherein 

 their eggs are deposited. Hence the insects of this order may 

 be divided into two groups. Stingers, and Piercers. Though 

 both of them undergo a complete transformation in coming to 

 maturity, they differ from each other in the early states of their 

 existence. The young of all the stinging Hymenoptera are 

 soft, white, and maggot-shaped, and are without legs ; some 

 of those of the Piercers have the same form, but the others 

 more nearly resemble grubs and caterpillars, having a horny 

 head, and six jointed legs, and some of them numerous fleshy 



