DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 121 



tremendous arms with which they annoy us, are two 

 darts finer than a hair, furnished on their outer side at 

 the end with several barbs not visible to the naked eye, 

 and each moving in the groove of a strong and often 

 curved sheath, frequently mistaken for the sting, which, 

 when the darts enter the flesh, usually injects a drop of 

 subtle venom, furnished from a peculiar vessel in which 

 it is secreted, into the wound, occasioning, especially if 

 the darts be not extracted, a considerable tumour, ac- 

 companied by very acute pain. Many insects are thus 

 armed and have this power. Twice I have been stung 

 by an Ichneumon ; first by one with a concealed sting, 

 and afterwards by another of the family of Pimpla Ma- 

 nifestator, with a very long exerted one. I had held the 

 insect by its sting, which it withdrew from between my 

 fingers with surprising force, and then, as if in revenge, 

 stung me. Pompilus viaticus, one of the spider-wasps, 

 once, in this way, gave me acute pain. Mr. W. S. Mac- 

 Leay states that at the Havana he was once stung by a 

 gigantic Pompilus (probably P. Heros), from which he 

 suffered a very short-lived pain, but the wound bled as 

 if punctured by a pin. The bleeding he conjectures 

 carried off the venom. But the insects which in this re- 

 spect principally attract our notice by exciting our fears, 

 are the hive-bee, the wasp, and the hornet. The first of 

 these, the bee, sometimes manifests an antipathy to par- 

 ticular individuals, whom it attacks and wounds without 

 provocation ; but the two last, though apparently the 

 most formidable, are not so ill- tempered as they are con- 

 ceived to be, seldom molesting those who do not first 

 interfere with or disturb them. We learn from Scrip- 

 ture that the hornet (but whether it was the common 

 species is uncertain) was employed by Providence to 



