232 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



that of the bee, and may be divided into three parts, viz. : 

 head, neck, and hind body, which are connected together by 

 a thread-like organ. The head consists almost exclusively 

 of two large eyes, two antenna, and denticulated jaws, and 

 in some species with a proboscis for sucking the nectar of 

 flowers. On the under part of the neck are placed six legs, 

 and above them four transparent, membranaceous wings. 

 Most of the females, and those without sex, as the workers 

 of bees and ants, are armed with a sting, and occasionally 

 with venom, which they infuse into the puncture. On this 

 account the whole tribe has been called Aculeata (stingers 

 or piercers). Gall-wasps, ichneumon-flies, wasps, ants, and 

 bees, with many others, come under this denomination, and 

 belong to this order. All the females are provided with an 

 ovipositor, which in some species has the form of a hair, in 

 others the form of a saw, and in others that of a sting. 

 The two former are prominent organs, which are visible 

 and can not sting, except into the soft skin of caterpillars, 

 where they sometimes deposit eggs, but the latter always 

 lies concealed in the body until used as a weapon of defense 

 or revenge. 



The larvce of Hymenopterous insects are of various forms. 

 Some of them resemble caterpillars, having eighteen or even 

 twenty feet, others are maggots without any feet or eyes. 

 Most of the larviE are of this latter description ; but those 

 of the wood and leaf wasps have six horny feet on the neck, 

 and twelve or fourteen fleshy ones on the hind body. All 

 the larvae of this order are peculiar for living in clean places, 

 such as cells artificially built of wax, pieces of wood, leaves, 

 or mortar ; or they dwell in wood, in holes under ground, in 

 gall-apples or oak balls, and many live in caterpillars, but 

 none inhabit carrion, dunghills, or other putrid and filthy 

 places. When full grown, all these larvae, like those of 

 butterflies, metamorphose themselves into a cocoon woven 

 of silk. 



