HYMENOPTERA. 405 



proplegs, besides. The latter, when food falls them in one 

 place, are able to ereep to another, and can look out for them- 

 selves a proper place of shelter, wherein to go throngh with 

 their transformations. The others are exceedingly helpless, 

 and depend wholly upon the instinctive foresight of their 

 parents, or the daily care of attentive nurses, for their food 

 and habitations. When fully grown, nearly all of these young 

 insects spin oblong oval cocoons, wherein they change to chrysa- 

 lids, and finally to winged insects. A few, however, never 

 obtain wings in the adult state; but these are mostly certain 

 neuter and female ants, the males of which possess wings. 

 With the exception of the white ants, belonging to another 

 order, it is only among Hymenopterous insects that we find 

 certain individuals constantly barren, and hence called neuters. 

 These form the principal part of those communities of bees, 

 of wasps, and of ants, that unite in making a habitation for 

 the whole swarm, and in providing a stock of provisions for 

 their own use, and for that of their helpless brood; and nearly 

 or quite all the labor falls upon these industrious neuters, 

 whose care and affection for the young, which they foster and 

 shelter, could not be greater were they their own offspring. 



Hymenopterous insects love the light of the sun; they take 

 wing only during the daytime, and remain at rest in the night, 

 and in dull and wet weather. They excel all other insects in 

 the number and variety of their instincts, which are wonder- 

 fully displayed in the methods employed by them in providing 

 for the comfort and the future wants of their offspring. In 

 the introductory chapter some remarks have akeady been 

 made on their habits and economy; and the limits of this 

 work will not allow me now to enlarge upon them. I shall 

 not, therefore, attempt to show how admirably the Hymeno- 

 ptera are fitted, in the formation of all their parts, for their 

 appointed tasks. If any of my readers are curious to learn 

 this, and to witness for themselves the various arts, resources, 

 and contrivances resorted to by these insects, let them go 

 abroad in the summer, and watch them during their labors. 

 They will then see the saw-fly making holes in leaves with 

 her double key-hole saws, and the horn-tail boring with her 



