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species makes its nest very commonly under stone-piles by the road-side. Itisa 
handsome and courageous insect ; and Nick Bottom the Weaver gave the fairy 
Cobweb no light task when he bade him: 
Monsieur Cobweb: good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand; and kill me a red-hipped 
humble-bee on the top of a thistle ; and good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag. 
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV., sc. 1. 
It is to be hoped that Oberon interposed in behalf of the bee, for 
Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing 
Till he hath lost his honey and his sting ; 
And being once subdued in armed tail 
Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. 
bid, Act V., sc. 2. 
Other passages in which bees are mentioned are The Tempest, Act L, se. 2, 
and Act V., sc. 1; Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IIL, se. 1, Love’s labour’s lost, 
Act IIL, se. 1; All’s well that ends well, Act IV., se. 5; Comedy of Errors, Act 
IL, sc. 1; 2nd Part K. Henry VI., Act IV., sc. 2; Troilus and Cressida, Act I., se. 
3, Act II., se. 2, and Act V., sc. 2; Cymbeiine, Act IIL, se. 2; and Titus Androni- 
cus, Act IV., se. 1. 
Shakespeare’s allusions to the Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) convey the ideas of : 
(1) Petulance—Tempest, Act V., sc. 1: 
Mar’s hot minion is returned again 
Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows. 
See also Winter’s Tale, Act I, se. 2; 1st Part K. Henry IV., Act I, se. 3; 
and Julius Cesar, Act IV., se., 3. 
(2) Injustice—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I., se. 2: 
O hateful hands to tear such loving words 
Injurious wasps ! to feed on such sweet honey, 
And kill the bees that yield it, with your stings. 
(3) Vengeance—Titus Andronicus, Act IL., se. 3: 
When you have the honey you desire 
Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting. 
In the 3rd Part of K. Henry VI., Act IIL., se. 6, it is said of the defeated 
Lancastrians : 
For though they cannot greatly sting to hurt, 
Yet lcok to have them buz to offend thine ears. 
The commonest species of English ants is Formica rufa. This probably is the 
species mentioned in 1st Part of K. Henry IV., Act I. se. 3 by Hotspur: 
Why, look you, I am whipp’d and scourg’d with rods, 
Nettled and stung with pismires. 
Among the “skimble-skamble stuff” that angered Hotspur was Glendower’s 
talk of “the moldwarp and the ant” (Ib. Act III, sc. 1). The ant also is men- 
tioned in King Lear, Act IIL, se. 4. 
LepIDoPTERA.—To butterflies there are but few references in Shakespeare, 
but the few shew that the great dramatist had closely observed these beautiful 
objects. He knew of their metamorphoses, and says : 
There is a difference between a grub and a butterfly, yet your butterfly was but a grub. 
Coriolanus, Act V., sc. 5. 
In his choice of an adjective to describe their wings he could not have found 
a more appropriate word than he has in 
Men like butterflies 
Shew not their mealy wings, but to the summer. 
Troilus and Cressida, Act ITI., se. 3. 
