HYMENOPTERA. — ACULEATA. 183 
and exhibit several perfect cells. The abdomen, united to the thorax 
by a longer or shorter peduncle, is composed of seven joints in the 
males (fig. 81. 10.), and six in the females ( fig. 81. 1.). 
These insects are generally of a moderate or large size. The larvee 
have no legs, and are subvermiform, or grub-like, in their form. In 
the fossorial families, and in some of the wasps, they are nourished in 
cells prepared by the parents, in wood, sand, earth, &c.; and feed 
upon larvze or perfect insects, stored up for their support by the fe- 
males. In the ants, the larve are kept in masses, not being inclosed 
in separate cells, but in a large and general nest, and fed by workers 
with the juices of fruits, vegetables, animals, &c. in the typical wasps, 
they are arranged singly in cells, in beautifully constructed combs, 
being fed with animal or vegetable juices by the females or workers 
from time to time. In the solitary bees, the food consists of a supply 
of pollen paste, laid up by the parent insect in the solitary cell in 
which the larva resides ; and in the social bees, the larve are, as in 
the wasps, inclosed in separate cells in regular combs, and are fed 
by the workers with honey. 
With respect to the general economy of the Aculeata, two groups 
exist ; namely, 1. those species which live in society, having indivi- 
duals of the neuter sex; and 2. those which are solitary in their 
habits, and consist only of males and females. This is surely a far 
more natural distribution than that primarily employed by Saint Far- 
geau, from the nature of the food, namely Phytiphages and Zoo- 
phages (vide ante, p.36.). When, however, we consider that many 
bees and wasps are solitary nest-makers, and many others parasites, 
and that all these are unprovided with neuters, there is reason to 
doubt the propriety of the adoption of such a principle of distribution, 
and to believe, on the other hand, that an arrangement founded upon 
the general structure of the different groups is the most satisfactory : 
and Latreille, having proposed several modes of distribution of this 
section, founded upon such structural considerations, I have not hesi- 
tated to adopt this principle, and have accordingly employed the ar- 
rangement proposed in his most valuable work, the Genera Crusta- 
ceorum, &c.; in which he divides it into two subsections: 1. the Pre- 
dones, or sand-wasps, ants and wasps, including the families Sphegime, 
Crabronites, Bembecides, Scolietee, Mutillariae, Formicariz, Vesparee, 
and Masarides ; and 2. the Anthophila, or bees, comprising the An- 
drenete and Apiariw. In the Régne Animal, he has raised the For- 
N 4 
