STINGING FOUR-WINGED INSECTS 



705 



Phot, by Jf. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] \_R,g,nt^i Park 



ICHNEUMON-FLY 



One of the largest species of a -very extensive group of para- 

 sitic insects 



fly hurled to the ground by a mason-bee which 

 had built her nest in a hole in a wall. The fly 

 rolled herself up into a ball, when the bee bit off 

 her wings, and then flew away. But as soon as 

 she was gone the wingless fly stretched herself 

 out again, and climbed up the wall to the bee's 

 nest to deposit her eggs. 



The group of stinging insects begins with 

 the ANTS, which are probably the most intelligent 

 animals now living in the world. Different species, 

 however, differ very much in their manners and 

 customs, and in the grade of civilisation to which 

 they have attained. Some of the more industrious 

 among them keep other insects as cattle, and even 

 as pets ; others harvest grain, while a few species 

 cultivate grain for their own use ; and others make 

 large mushroom-beds of comminuted leaves, and 

 thus do great harm to cultivated trees in many 

 parts of tropical America. When the industrious 

 ants are not too busy, they sometimes indulge in 

 sports and pastimes. But there are some species 

 which live in idle communities. Such ants are only 

 energetic as marauders, and are so degraded that 

 they cannot even feed themselves, and starve to 

 death if they are deprived of the services of their 

 black slaves, which have been carried off as pupae 



by the others in piratical raids, and brought up by other slaves, which do all the work in the 

 nests of their captors. 



Quitting the Ants, we arrive at a rather extensive series of insects of moderate or con- 

 siderable size, and with very spiny legs, called BURROWING-WASPS. They are brightly coloured, 

 active insects, and generally dig holes in the ground, which they provision with caterpillars, 

 grasshoppers, or spiders, which they paralyse with their stings, and leave in a moribund condition 

 to form the food of their progeny. They are generally winged in both sexes, but in one family 

 the females .are stout and very hairy, and look like large hairy ants, while the males are slender 

 winged insects, very unlike their partners. In the burrowing-wasps the front of the thorax, 

 or second division of the body, is usually transverse, and often narrow; but in the TRUE WASPS 

 it bends back to the wings. Among these latter it is only the small group of the SOCIAL 

 WASPS which are gregarious, and among which we find workers as well as males and females. 

 The largest of the British wasps is the HORNET ; but there are several much larger species in 

 the East Indies, some of which are black and yellow, like the Chinese MANDARIN-WASP, the 



largest of all, which often measures 2 inches across the 

 wings. Others are black, with one large reddish band on 

 the abdomen. Their nests, which they construct of a kind 

 of paper, are formed in a hole in the ground, in a 

 hollow tree, or in a bush, or under the eaves of a house. 

 A nest is commenced by a single female which has survived 

 the winter, and is afterwards enlarged by the exertions of 

 her progeny. 



The last group in this order are the BEES. They 

 may generally be easily recognised by their shaggy bodies 

 and legs. As with the Wasps, most species are solitary, 

 live in very small communities. Some few are smooth. 



Photos by W. P. Dandt, F.Z.S. 



RUBY-TAILED WOOD-ANT 

 FLY 



Generally of a brilliant 

 metallic green or blue 



The largest species 

 found in Britain 



or 



in very 



89 



