212 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
disable their prey, assistants to divide the prey into portable 
portions, and the labourers or workers. The bite of these insects 
is very severe, and so intense does it become by accumulation, that 
large animals, when confined, have been overpowered and destroyed 
by them. They have been known to kill the Python Natalensts, 
the largest serpent in that part of the world ; and they are decidedly 
aggressive in their habits. Their entrance into dwellings is known 
by a simultaneous movement of all the rats, mice, lizards, and 
cockroaches with which they may be infested. Even man has to get 
out of their way, and the driver ant chases him from his home. 
They are most useful in the economy of Nature; they consume 
much dead animal and vegetable matter which might otherwise 
taint the atmosphere ; they tend to keep down the rapid increase 
of noxious insects and vermin; and they compel the inhabitants 
to observe habits of comparative cleanliness, as a filthy town or 
house is sure to be visited by them. 
FOSSORIAL HYMENOPTERA, 
The Afymenoptera thus termed belong to several well charac- 
terised families. Some resemble the ants both in appearance and 
in their habits; others have a peculiar look about them, which 
particularises them, and the rest resemble wasps. But although 
these fossorial or excavating Hyimenoptera differ so far as their 
external characters are concerned, they have many mutual resem- 
blances in their habits and methods of life. They are generally 
very industrious insects, are gifted with great constructive powers, 
and are animated with a wonderful amount of instinct and fore- 
sight in the preparation for the subsistence of their young. But 
it must be understood that this last gift only pertains to the 
females, which are always armed with a sting, for the males do 
not trouble themselves about their young in any way. These 
flymenoptera excavate the earth and walls, and sometimes pene- 
trate branches of trees and stems of bushes, so as to make safe 
places and shelters for their larva. They are furnished with 
cutting and toothed mandibles, and their legs are covered with spines, 
which can act like rakes, and they use these working implements 
