HYMEXOPTERA. 



Fam. Braccnidee. They principally persecute caterpillars, as well as beetle 

 larvre living in dead wood. Microgaster glommcratus L., in caterpillars, 

 Bracon impostor Scop., Br.palpebrator Katzbg. 



Fam. Ichneumonidae. Iclincunwn incubitor L. Z (Trogus) Intorius Ratzbg., 

 P'nnpla (Eplnaltes) manifestator L., OpUion luteus L. 



Fam. Evaniadse. Ecania appendlg aster L., Foenus jaculator L. 



Sub-order 2. Aculeata. 



With retractile perforated sting and poison gland in the female 

 sex. Abdomen always stalked ; the antennae of male usual thirteen- 

 jointed, of the female twelve-jointed. The larvae arc apodal and 

 without anus. 



Fam. Formicidse* (Ants) (fig. 490). They live together in communities, which 

 contain, besides the winged males and females, a great excess of small apterous 

 workers with stronger prothorax. The latter are sometimes of two kinds, 

 known as soldiers and true workers, distinguished by the size of the head and 

 jaws. The workers are 

 aborted females and re- 

 semble the true females 

 in possessing a poison 

 gland, the acid secre- 

 tion (formic acid) of 

 which they either pour 

 out with the help of the 

 sting or, in the absence 

 of the latter, eject into 

 the wound made by the 

 mandibles. 



The dwellings of the 

 ants consist of passages 

 and cavities, which are 

 placed in rotten wood, 

 in the earth, or in hill- 

 like heaps which they Fjfl< m _ Fori)j;ca (Camponotu*) lureulanea. a, Female, b, Male. 

 throw up. Winter pro- c> Worker, d. Larva of Formica rnfa. e, pupa with! case, so- 

 visions are not carried called ant egg. /, ,g, Pupa liberated from the case. 

 into these spaces, since 



the ant-workers, which with the queens alone survive the winter, fal! into a 

 kind of winter sleep. 



In the spring queens are found in addition to the workers. From the eggs of 

 the queens larvse proceed, which are carefully reared and protected by the 

 workers. The larvae in egg-shaped cocoons become puprc (ants' eggs) and develop, 

 some of them to workers and some to winged sexual animals, which appear with 

 us sooner or later in the course of the summer, and copulate in the flight. After 

 copulation the males die, the females lose their wings and are carried back by 



* P. Huber, " Recherches sur les mceurs des Fourmis indigenes." Geneva, 

 1810. 



LatreUle, " Histoire naturelle des Fourmis." Paris, 1802. 

 A. Forcl, " Les Fourmis de la Suisse." Zurich, 1874. 



