76 Lessons in Nature Study. 



call bees membrane-winged insects, just as beetles are shell- 

 winged, and butterflies scale-winged. 



Compare also the feet, heads, and shape of the different 

 parts of the body with the same portions of other insects 

 you have examined. 



Take a large wasp or bee and examine its mouth care- 

 fully. The dried specimens collected last summer may be 

 rather hard to examine, but a little care will show that 

 these insects have a very peculiar mouth fitted both for 

 suction and for chewing. This is different from the 

 butterfly with its long trunk for sucking, and the beetle with 

 his powerful jaws. Examine the sting in the end of the 

 body, and if you have a microscope pull out the sting and 

 examine carefully. The feet will also be found to differ 

 greatly from those of the beetle, dragon-fly, and butterfly. 

 Count the rings in the body. 



Tell all you know about bees ; their food, homes, and 

 manner of living. Find out more by inquiring and reading. 

 The wonderful government of the hive, the acts of the 

 drones, the workers, and queens, will inspire interest for 

 many days. 



Wasps. 



Nests of mud-wasps are very common. The large ovoid 

 homes of the paper-wasp are not uncommon in brush and 

 open places. Samples of these as well as of the honeycomb 

 kind can be obtained to exhibit before the class. Tell 

 them how the wasp bites off wood, gnaws it, so to speak, 

 chews it up, and mixes it with saliva to form paper. It is 

 from the wasp that mankind learned how to make paper. 

 Cut open the wasp nest and show the beautiful inside ar- 

 rangement. Talk about hornets, yellow-jackets, and other 

 insects of this family. It is the most useful to man of all 

 the insect tribes. 



Talk about honey as a food; how it is made, its great 

 importance in the ancient world, when it took the place of 

 sugar. Tell how the wax is an excretion from the sides of 



