and Position of the Hymenoptera. 95 
the thorax; in having the three regions of the body more dis- 
tinctly marked and more equally developed than in other insects. 
The mouth-parts are more equally developed, and at the same 
time more differentiated in structure and function ; there are no 
abdominal jointed appendages present in the adult form, while 
the external generative organs are more symmetrically developed 
and more completely enclosed within the abdomen in the highest 
families than in any other suborder of Insects. They afford the 
highest types of Articulates, being more compact, less loosely 
put together, and thus presenting less of degradational features 
than any of the other suborders; but the most valuable single 
character is the transfer of the first abdominal ring forwards to 
the adjoiming region, which involves an entire remodelling of 
the body, throwing forwards the prime elements of the organism, 
by which it becomes more cephalized, and thus the nervous 
power is rendered more centralized than in all other Articulates. 
Selecting the Honey-bee as the type, being, in our view, the 
most perfectly organized of all insects, we find the head larger 
and the abdomen smaller in proportion than in other insects, 
accompanied with the most equable and compact development 
of the parts composing these regions. The brain-ganglia are 
largest and most developed, according to the studies of ento- 
motomists. The larve, in their general form, are more unlike 
the adult insects than in any other suborder of Insects, while 
the pupz most closely approximate to the imago. They are 
short, cylindrical, footless, worm-like grubs, which are helpless, 
and have to be fed by the prevision of the parents. In under- 
going a more complete metamorphosis than any other insects, 
in the unusual differentiation of the sex into males and females 
and sterile females or workers, with a further dimorphism of 
these three sexual forms and a consequent subdivision of labour 
among them—in dwelling in large colonies, thus involving new 
and intricate relations between the individuals of the species 
and other insects—their wonderful instincts, their living on the 
sweets and pollen of flowers, and not being carnivorous in their 
habits as are the Neuroptera and a large proportion of the 
- Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, and Diptera, and their rela- 
tion to man as a domestic animal subservient to his wants,— 
the bees, and Hymenoptera in general, possess a combination of 
characters which are not found existing im any other suborder 
of Insects, and which we must believe rank them first and highest 
in the insect series. 
Likewise the Hymenoptera are more purely terrestrial insects 
than all others. The Neuroptera are, as a whole, water-insects : 
their larvee live in the water, and the perfect insects live near 
streams and pools. The Orthoptera are more terrestrial. Among 
