164 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The Order Hymendptera of Linnseus, contains, as its name 

 implies, those species having membranous wings. All wasps, bees, 

 and other insects having four wings, biting jaws, and a sting in the 

 extremity of the abdomen, belong to this Order, together with 

 the ants, gall-flies, ichneumons, and almost all the parasitic 

 tribes which deposit their eggs, in the eggs or larvce of others. 

 The anterior pair of wings are the largest, and furnished with 

 a small scale or plate at the base called tegula. Both pairs are 

 crossed with veins running longitudinally and transversely, but 

 much fewer in number than in the last Order, so that they do 

 not form a close network. The areas or cells enclosed by these 

 veins, varying as they do in form and size, are of great service 

 in the classification and arrangement of different groups and 

 genera. On the anterior margin of the hind wings can be seen 

 by the aid of a lens or magnifier a row of small sharp hooks or 

 claws bent toward the upper surface ; these correspond to and 

 unite with a sort of flange or groove on the under side of the 

 binder edge of the fore wings so as to expose a continuous 

 surface to the air, in flight. The females are furnished with a 

 complicated organ at the extremity of the abdomen consisting 

 generally of five pieces, two of which close the opening, or act 

 as additional sheaths, while the others are of various forms in 

 different families according to the use for which they are 

 intended ; being flattened and the central one double and 

 serrated in the saw-flies ; apparently consolidated into a sharp 

 sting in the wasps and bees ; and long slender, and bristle like 

 in the ic/ineumons, where they are used as ovipositors, or egg- 

 laying instruments. In this latter tribe, which comprises some 

 of the most beneficial of the Order, the two side pieces are 

 grooved on the inside throughout their length, and when 

 pressed together form a tube for conducting the egg to its 

 place of deposit ; the central piece being cylindrical, and finely 

 toothed near the extremity, ending in a sharp point and fitted 

 for piercing the bodies of grubs and caterpillars on which the 

 larva; feed. 



The family Tenthredlniihc, (from the Greek name for a 

 species of wasp or bee,) which contains the saw-flies and allied 

 species ; the Urocerida-, (signifying horn-tailed, in allusion to 

 their short and stout ovipositors,) which bore into trees, and 

 feed uj)on tiie wood in the larva state ; and tlie Ci/nipidcc^ 



