634 THE WASPS AND THE ANTS. 



entomologists always find that when they attempt to rear insects from 

 the egg or the larval state they must count upon losing a very large 

 percentage by the Ichneumons. 



In the next great division of hymenopterous insects the ovipositor 

 of the female is changed into a sharply-pointed weapon, popularly 

 called a sting, and connected with a gland in which is secreted a 

 poison closely analogous to that which envenoms a serpent's tooth. 



First come those curious and interesting insects popularly known by 

 the names of Sand Wasps and Wood Wasps. These creatures ard 

 in the habit of making burrows in the ground or in posts and placing 

 therein their eggs, together with the bodies of other insects which are 

 destined to serve as food for the future progeny. Spiders are some- 

 times captured and immured. for this purpose. In many instances the 

 captured insects are stung to death before they are placed in the 

 burrow, but it is often found that they only receive a wound sufficient 

 to paralyze them, so that they lead a semi-torpid life until they are 

 killed and eaten by the young grub. Two of these Sand Wasps are 

 tolerably common in Englaud. One o^ them {^Crabro cribarius^, the 

 wood-borer, drills its barrow into posts, palings, and similar substances. 

 It feeds its young with the larvae of one of the leaf-rolling caterpillars, 

 that lives in the oak, and is scientifically known by the name of Tortrix 

 chlorana. It also employs for this purpose several two-winged insects. 

 One species of these burrowing wasps prefers the well-known cuckoo- 

 spit insect for this purpose {Aphroplwra spumariaj, pulling it out of its 

 frothy bed by means of its long legs. 



Another of these insects, called Philanthiis triangulum, is in the 

 habit of provisioning its burrow with the hive bee, which it contrives 

 to master, in spite of the formidable weapon possessed by its victim, 

 and then murders or paralyzes by means of its sting. M. Latreille 

 mentioned that he saw from fifty to sixty of these insects busily 

 engaged in burrowing into a sandbank not more than forty yards 

 long ; and as each female lays five or six eggs, and deposits a bee 

 with each egg, the havoc made among the hives is by no means in- 

 considerable. 



The true Ants, as is well known, associate in great numbers, and, 

 as is peculiarly the case with the bees, the great bulk of their numbers 

 is composed of workers, or neuters, which are destined to perform the 

 constant labors needful to regulate so large a community. The perfect 

 insects of either sex take no part in the daily tasks, their sole object 

 being to keep up the numbers of the establishment. In the Ants, 

 moreover, the neuters are without wings, and even the perfect insects 

 retain these organs for only a brief period of their existence. 



Every one has heard of the objects called " ants' eggs," which are so 

 strongly recommended as food for the nightingale and other birds ; and 



