212 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



in the male is no less formidable than it appears, as 

 the unwary school-boy often experiences ; for it can 

 be used as a pair of pincers, so powerfully, as to 

 inflict considerable pain. An instance, no less re- 

 markable, though, from the size of the insect, less 

 commonly observed, occurs in the horned wasp 

 (Synagris cornuta), the male being* furnished on 

 the upper side of the base of its straight slender 

 mandibles with a pair of crooked, decurved, and tor- 

 tuous, sharp horns, longer than the head itself*. 

 A distinction less conspicuous, but worthy of being 

 noted, occurs in the sexes of the various species of 

 humble-bee (Bombus). It may have been observed 

 by some of our readers, in the early spring months, 

 particularly in the afternoon of a fine day, that some 

 very large humble-bees (Bombus terrestris, B. lapi- 

 daria, &c.), are busily prying into the holes and cre- 



Male and female Bombus. 



vices of hedge-banks, into which they enter for a few 

 minutes, and then start off, as if dissatisfied, to some 

 fresh locality. These are the females, which have 

 survived the winter, and are in search of a suitable 

 spot to found a summer colony. If one of these be 

 caught, and its mandibles examined, they will be 

 found very stout, and wide, constricted in the middle, 

 and furrowed on the outer surface. In the small 

 males, again, which may be taken in thousands, upon 

 flowers, when the season is more advanced, the point 

 * Christ, H^menoptera, xviii. 2. 



