Order Hymenoptera. 



been divided into many families and subfamilies. Mr. W. H. 

 Ashmead of the United States National Museum, whose great 

 work on this order has placed him at the head of all living 

 authorities on the Hymenoptera, has recently given us as the 

 result of his prolonged studies an arrangement of this enormous 

 complex of forms into ten super-families, and for the sake of sim- 

 plicity our consideration of the order will follow his classification 

 at the risk of some slight temporary confusion in the minds of 

 those familiar with other general works on insects. The corre- 

 spondence between physical structure and habits and mode of 

 life, however, is so marked in the Hymenoptera, that these 

 structural super-families are really habit super-families as well. 



Economically considered the Hymenoptera as a whole is a 

 beneficial group in its relation to man. Aside from the honey 

 industry dependent upon the honey bee, thousands of the 

 parasitic forms destroy noxious insects, very many forms are of 

 the utmost importance as cross fertilizers of trees and plants, 

 and certain galls have a distinct value in commerce. 



In the different aspects of the study of this great group 

 there is room for a small army of workers. 



TABLE OF SUBORDERS AND SUPER-FAMILIES. 



Suborder HETEROPHAGA, ASHMEAD. Abdomen much nar- 

 rowed at its attachment to the thorax. Larvae legless. 



Suborder PHYTOPHAGA, LATREILLE. Abdomen broad at its 

 attachment to the thorax. Larvae with legs. 



Heterophaga. 



Underside of last segment of the abdomen not divided 

 longitudinally; the sting or ovipositor, when present, 

 always issuing from the tip of the abdomen i 



Underside of last segment of the abdomen divided; ovipos- 

 itor issuing some distance before the tip of abdomen; 

 trochanters always two-jointed 5 



I Pronotum not extending back to the tegulae 2 



Pronotum extending back to tegulae, or the latter are absent. 3 



