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prepared the nest for her young, fills it with insects which she has stung ; 
she then lays an egg and closes up the nest. Upon the grub hatching it has a 
larder well supplied with provisions which will keep fresh as long as required for 
it to complete its transformations. 
The Ants do not demand much of our attention in this country as either 
injurious or beneficial insects, although there are a few species which are occa- 
sionally troublesome, and destructive to posts and fences. The almost human 
aspects of ant-life, however, as exhibited by different species, provide a favorite 
study for the entomologist, and an investigation of them could not fail to fill 
even the least curious with wonder and amazement. Their dwellings are con- 
structed on the most scientific architectural patterns ; some species have their 
cows (aphides), which they tend with the utmost care. There are some again 
which make expeditions against less powerful ants, and carry them off to serve 
them as domestic servants, they themselves becoming entirely dependent upon 
the assistance they thus secure, so as to be almost helpless without it. Others, 
notably the celebrated Agricultural ants of Texas, cultivate the ground, reap the 
harvest, and store up the grain. 
Of allinsects beneficial to man, none, perhaps, surpass the ichneumon flies 
which are parasitic upon the larve of various insects. This is an enormous class 
embracing insects of all sizes, according to the size of the insects they infest. 
Rhyssa lunator, the largest found in this country, has a body nearly an inch and 
a half long, and an ovipositor of upwards of four inches, while there are some - 
which are so small that they can only be distinguished by the aid of a strong 
magnifying glass. No class of insects seems to be exempt from the attacks of 
these freebooters; and with them there does not even seem to be honor among 
thieves, for nearly every species has a parasite of its own class. As arule, the parent 
fly has at the end of the abdomen a long pointed instrument with which she 
pricks a hole through the skin of a larva, and down which she passes an egg 
which, in time, hatches into a white, footless, eyeless grub, inside the skin of the 
caterpillar. Now, I have said that most insects breathe through breathing-pores 
in their sides. These, however, are an exception, and have their spiracles in the 
tril. The first care of the newly-hatched grub is to find one of the caterpillar’s 
breathing-pores and fix its tail to it, so that it may breathe the air. It then sets 
to work and feeds upon the body of its host until fully developed, when it eats 
a hole through the skin and escapes. 
Before closing this, I fear, already too long address, I feel constrained to 
direct your notice to some of the contrivances by which Nature provides that 
the flowers of plants may be visited by such insects as may assist in fertilizing 
the ovary, and may keep away such as are useless. 
_ In order that the ovules contained in the ovary, which is part of the pistit 
of a fiower, may be fertilized, it is necessary that the pollen from the anthers of 
. 
