OTHER INSECTS. 



205 



Among the bees, wasps, etc., we find a large number of 

 insects that can inflict a very severe sting. But as a very 

 general rule they sting only when provoked, in self-defense, 

 or if they fear for their young. None can therefore be called 

 true parasites of man. Yet ants, at the time when they 

 swarm and cover everything with their active bodies, ""[are 

 not infrequently called parasites. The ant showm in fig. 170 



Fig. 170. — Winged ant, Myrmica scabrinodis Nyl. Greatly enlarged. Original. 



{Myrmica scahrinodis Nyl.) was captured during September 

 in an open street-car. Passing through a swarm of these 

 ants the car was taken by storm, and in a very few min- 

 utes all the legitimate passengers were stamping, shaking 

 and investigating their clothes. And not in vain, as the per- 

 plexed looks of the ladies and of some of the gentlemen 

 clearly showed. If one of the ants was roughly handled 

 in putting it off the car it was not slow to retaliate, and 

 a bite with the formidable jaws shown in the illustration, 

 and a poisonous sting, soon convinced everyone in that car 

 that a more tender handling of these intruders was the bet- 

 ter and safer method of dislod.srinsr them. 



