ANTS, WASPS, AND BEES. 217 



and wasps are the most generally interesting of all 

 those termed Hymenopterous insects, yet they are 

 only a portion of the order to which they belong. 

 There are, for instance, the Ichneumons, most 

 strange-looking flies, with thin, attenuated waists, 

 and tails furnished with long and strong ovipositors. 

 They are veritable cuckoos amongst insects, for they 

 have a habit of puncturing other living insects, and 

 depositing eggs in their bodies ; these, when hatched, 

 live at the expense of, and ultimately devour, their 

 host. We* should be afraid to venture a guess at the 

 number of species of the smaller Hymenopterous 

 insects which are true parasites. In this we recognize 

 one provision for keeping in check the enormous 

 production of flies of all kinds, which otherwise 

 might so swarm as to devour every green thing. 

 There is scarcely a gall insect which produces galls 

 upon plants but has its peculiar parasite, generally 

 of these four-winged flies, and thus they become 

 parasites of each other, for a great number of galls 

 are the production of this kind of insect. Bees and 

 wasps have their parasites, in what might be termed 

 " cousins," of the same family. In fact, parasitism 

 is carried to an extreme amongst insects just lauded 

 for sociable qualities, and for the possession of a 

 large share of instinct almost bordering upon 

 intelligence. 



Another group consists of " Saw-Flies." Some of 

 these are very destructive in pine woods, and one l is 

 often very troublesome in our plantations. After 



; Zophyrus pini. 



