ANTS, WASPS, AND BEES. 207 



To show how persistently Sir John Lubbock has 

 studied the history and mystery of ant-life, he has 

 stated that he possesses ants which are five years old. It 

 may safely be asserted that no insects so amply repay 

 study and afford so much interest as those which 

 compose the order to which ants belong, including 

 as it does the bees and wasps. We have only hinted 

 at some of the remarkable facts which are to be col- 

 lected from the elaborate details of recent experi- 

 ments. 1 These form but a small portion of the 

 domestic economy of these minute but extraordinary 

 insects. 



In all that concerns British bees the works of Mr. 

 W. E. Shuckard contain such a fund of information 

 that we must at once admit the source whence much 

 of our information has been derived. It is confessedly 

 a section of entomology in which there are but few 

 active workers, and the life and powers of man are 

 too circumscribed to permit of any one individual 

 becoming more than superficially acquainted with 

 many of the elaborate leaves in the Book of Nature. 

 The bees and wasps are rather lovers of sandy and 

 open spots than woods and forests, nevertheless many 

 of them will often be found there, and it would be 

 considered a grave omission if we were wholly to 

 exclude them from our generalizations. 



A pretty little bee, called Ceratina, on account of 

 its bearing a small horn between its antennae, is rare, 

 but has been found plentifully in some localities. It 



1 Recorded in the "Journal of the Linnean Society" from 

 1874 to 1878. 



