702 



The Living Animals of the World 



All the grubs retain tight hold of their cases by means of a pincer-like organ at the end 

 of the body. When fully fed, they close the aperture at each end of the tube, and assume 

 the chrysalis state, the perfect insects emerging a few weeks later. Although the wings are large 

 and broad, they fly very slowly, and never seem to take more than a short journey through the 

 air. They may often be seen in numbers resting upon the herbage on the banks of streams 

 and ponds, or crawling down into the water in order to deposit their eggs. 



Photo ly W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park: 

 SAW-FLY. 



One of the commonest of the larger British 

 species is a blackish hairy insect, measuring 

 rather more than an inch in expanse, with 

 transparent wings bordered with brown. 



STINGING FOUR-WINGED INSECTS, OR ANTS, BEES AND WASPS, AND THEIR ALLIES 



BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S. 



THE order of insects to which the Ants, Bees, and Wasps 

 belong includes a very large number of species. All these are 

 provided with four membranous wings, alike in consistency, and 

 provided with comparatively few nervures. The wings are 

 usually of small size, as compared with the dimensions of the 

 insects, but are very powerful, owing to the fore and hind 

 pair being connected together during flight by a series of little 

 links ; and the flight of the insects is usually very rapid. 

 These insects pass through a perfect metamorphosis, the pupa 

 being always inactive; the jaws are provided with mandibles, 

 though a proboscis, or sucking -tube, is also present, and the 

 abdomen of the female is armed with an ovipositor, or boring 

 instrument, which is frequently modified into a powerful sting, 

 used to deposit the eggs in their proper position. One pecu- 

 liarity is that several species of ants, bees, and wasps live in 

 large communities, in which the bulk of the inhabitants, on 



whom most of the work of the nest falls, are imperfectly developed and usually sterile females, 



called neuters, or workers. This arrangement is also met with in the White Ants, which 



belong to the order of Lace-winged Insects. Among both the Ants and White Ants the neuters 



are unprovided with wings ; but these organs are 



present in the fully developed males and females, 



though soon cast. 



A great variety of other insects also belong to 



this order, such as Saw-flies, Grail-flies, and an immense 



number of parasitic species, generally called Ichneumon- 

 flies, among which are some of the smallest insects 



known. 



This extensive order of insects is divided into two 



principal sections those in which the ovipositor is 



used as a saw or an auger, and those in which it is 



modified into a sting. One of the most interesting 



sections of the Borers includes the SAW-FLIES, in 



which the boring instrument is modified into a pair 



of toothed saws, which are used for cutting incisions 



in leaves, or in the tender bark of twigs, in which 



to deposit the eggs. These flies have four transparent 



wings, sometimes stained with yellow or purple, and 



their bodies are moderately stout and obtuse, and 



generally black, red, or yellow. The antennae are very 



variable in form, and are sometimes knobbed at the 



end like those of a butterfly ; sometimes they are 



formed of a number of long, slender joints; some- 



Photoby W. P. Vando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park. 



MARBLE GALL-FLY AND GALL. 



Found on oak, and not unlike the foreign gall used for 

 making ink. 



