30 Proceedings. 
sculptures and papyri, and the poems of Homer. Hymenoptera 
might generally be called four-winged flies. In some instances 
wings were not present, as in the worker ant and some of the 
female gall-flies. Females of nearly all the species possessed 
organs for the conveyance of the eggs to the spot where 
development was to take place. Those organs often constituted 
formidable offensive weapons ; they were known as the ovi- 
positors or stings. Those insects in which the ovipositor was 
converted into a sting, had the base of the organ put into 
communication with a gland secreting an acrid fluid, which 
contained much formic acid. The injection of this fluid into 
the puncture produced by the sting, made the effect of being 
stung so exceedingly painful. It must not be concluded that 
the sting was used solely as a weapon of defence, as a large 
number of the Hymenoptera had to supply their young with 
animal food, consisting generally of the larve of other insects 
or spiders. The victims were rendered helpless by the female, 
who stung them before depositing them with her egg in the 
nest. The sting did not kill but paralysed the victim. Thus 
fresh food was secured to the larve. The larve of Hymeno-: 
ptera, with the exception of the Saw-flies, were soft, fleshy, 
legless grubs. Those of the Saw-fly closely resembled the 
caterpillar of the Lepidoptera, but a second glance showed they 
widely differed; the true caterpillar having only five pairs of 
feet, while the larve of the Saw-fly had seven or eight pairs 
of sucker-feet, as, for instance, the Turnip Saw-fly, and larve 
of the Twig Saw-fly, commonly known as black “ palmers or 
niggers.” The fly appeared in early summer; it was of a 
bright orange colour, with black head, tinged with deep red at 
the base, with four transparent wings, having an orange tinge 
towards the base. It was only to be seen on the wing during 
hours of bright sunshine. The female laid her eggs in slits at 
the edge of the turnip leaves, and the eggs hatched in about 
tive days. The grub, which was at first nearly white, soon 
became green with a black head, and then quite black with a 
pale stripe and with a white head, and lastly assumed a slate-grey 
colour with a grey head. It had 22 feet, and took about 
