240 HYMENOPTERA. 



of other species, store and take care of grain, build 

 roads, and domesticate and rear animals (like the 

 aphides), whose secretions they make use of for food, 

 as human beings make use of cows. So much has 

 been written on the habits and sagacity of these insects, 

 and the knowledge is so easily obtainable,^ we need 

 only refer here to Lubbock's - experiments, which have 

 demonstrated that the intelligence of these insects 

 does not differ so much in kind as in degree from the 

 intelligence of man. This fact would place ants at the 

 head of the invertebrates, were physiological character- 

 istics, such as mental qualities, rather than structure 

 and development, made the basis of our classification. 



SPHEGID.^. 



Fig. 193 is one of our common digger or solitary 

 wasps, Sphex ichneiimonea, Linn. The head is large, 

 and the abdomen is connected with the thorax by a 

 long, slender peduncle, which gives the desired plia- 

 bility when the sting is performing its function of par- 

 alyzing insects. The mandibles are strong, and aid 

 the long, bristled legs in digging nests in the earth. 

 Only one ^gg is laid in a nest. The larva is footless 

 and helpless. Its diet consists of the animal food, by 

 preference grasshoppers, which the parent has stung 

 and paralyzed, but, as a general thing, has not killed. 

 Some species prefer caterpillars ; some, aphides ; and 

 others, flies or spiders. The larvae live several weeks 



1 See H. C. McCook, Agrictdtural Ant of Texas ; Mary 

 Treat, Chapters on Ants ; Forel, Les Fonnnis de la Suisse. 

 ^ Ants, Bees, arid Wasps. 



