312 ORDER VI. PIPTERA. 



this purpose, the construction of their combs, their social 

 habits, and the laws under which they live and act, all 

 claim our curiosity and admiration ; and the naturalist will 

 find his labour abundantly compensated in studying this 

 branch of entomology with diligence and attention. It is 

 a serious misfortune, and a loss to individuals and the 

 public, that bees are not more generally reared in this 

 country ; and it is afflicting for humanity to reflect, that 

 no generally practicable expedient has been hitherto con- 

 trived, by which we may participate in the sweets of this 

 industrious tribe, without making them victims to our 

 cupidity. 



ORDER VI DIPTERA. 



THE diptera have two wings ; and two clavated halteres, 

 or balances, behind each. The order contains an infinite 

 variety of such winged insects as most frequently present 

 themselves to our view, and either annoy by their punctures, 

 or molest by their intrusions. Some of them, as the gad- 

 fly, the house-fly, and the whame, flutter about horses, 

 cows, sheep, the tops of trees, eminences, around ditches, 

 dung-hills, and every offensive object ; others, as the wasp- 

 fly, are mostly found on flowers of different sorts, parti- 

 cularly those of a fetid smell. 



The troublesome gnat, included in this order, is well 

 known in this country ; but the inconveniences arising from 

 it are trivial, when compared with those of the mosquito- 

 fly, one of this kind. In the less populous and unculti- 

 vated regions of America, where the climate is warm and 

 the waters occasionally stagnate, mosquitoes are an inces- 

 sant annoyance to every thing that breathes. There the 

 whole atmosphere appears loaded with them on the decline 

 of the sun, and neither force nor evasion can shield the 

 wretched sufferers from their attacks. Some of the species 



