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. 



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 p 

 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, Gall-flies, and an immense 

 number of parasitic species, generally called Ichneu- 

 mon-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, inv 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 antennas are very 

 variable in form, and are sometimes knobbed at the ?w. AT w. P. bandt, F.Z.S., Regents tark 



end like those of a butterfly; sometimes they are MARBLE GALL-FLY AND GALL 

 formed of a number of long, slender joints ; some- Foun j on oakt an d not unlike the foreign gall used for 



making ink 



Phtto by IV. P. Dando, F.Z.S. 



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 bro'wn 



