244 HYMENOPTERA. 



within its cell. It does not work its way through sub- 

 stances like the maggot of the fly, but remains in the 



cell, head downward, 

 being held there during 

 the latter part of its lar- 

 val life by the size of 

 the body, which exactly 

 fits the opening. The 

 larvse are fed by the older wasps till they are ready 

 to take care of themselves. 



APID^. 



The solitary, humble, and social bees are included 

 in this family, the most specialized of which is the 

 honey-bee. Apis inellifica. 



The Hymenoptera^ are commonly placed at the 

 extreme end of the classification, and considered as 

 if they were the most aberrant of all insects, or, to use 

 the ordinary nomenclature, the " highest," on account 

 of their beauty of proportion, the complexity of their 

 mouth parts, which are fitted for biting, sucking, and 

 piercing in some groups, and the tendency in several 

 families to gather into communities with so high a 

 degree of specialization that they have different castes 

 distinguished from each other in structure and func- 

 tion ; also because the first abdominal segment is 

 transferred to the thorax, so that by some entomolo- 

 gists this region is described as having four rings in- 

 stead of three in all the groups except the saw-flies 

 and horntails : and, finally, because they have the 



1 See especially Packard, F^ntoniology for Beginners^ p. 162. 



