256 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



also, are of the greatest use in the tropics, because they so 

 rapidly devour noxious carrion, which, if allowed to remain 

 until its decomposition and evaporation, would speedily cause 

 a pestilence. Their superabundance, which would be dan- 

 gerous to human life in the tropics, is checked by different 

 species of ant-eaters and armadillos in all the tropical re- 

 gions of America, Asia, and Africa. These animals feed 

 exclusively on ants, and are unquestionably the instruments 

 which a kind Providence has created for the purpose of 

 limiting the increase of these voracious insects. 



But our limits forbid us further to pursue this subject, 

 and we, therefore, shall now conclude our history of the Hy- 

 menoptera with the consideration of the most interesting 

 genus of the order — in fact, the most interesting, and in 

 many respects the most useful, of all the insects that inhabit 

 the globe, viz., 



The Honey-lee (Apis mellifera). 



This is an insect that in every country has universally 

 attracted man's attention and his nurturing care, from the 

 earliest ages of the world to the present time — a little an- 

 imal that has, probably, excited more admiration from all 

 classes of men than any other animated being on the earth's 

 surface not of the genus Homo — an insect celebrated in 

 the most ancient as well as the most modern records of the 

 world, both sacred and profane, as a riddle to the learned, 

 a marvel to the scientific, a faithful servant to the ignorant, 

 who has only known that it would ten-fold reward his care, 

 an object of wonder and reverence to the superstitious and 

 the heathen, and a model lesson to the child ! Even in our 

 nursery rhymes it has been distinguished above all other 

 animals as an example of industry, and the little lisping 

 child is taught to sing 



"How doth the little busy bee 

 Improve each shining hour!" 



