HYMENOPTERA. 107 



HYMENOPTERA. 



THE Bees, Wasps, Saw-flies, Ants, and other members of this 

 suborder differ from all other insects in having, in the higher and 

 more typical forms, the basal joint of the abdomen thrown for- 

 ward upon and intimately united with the thorax. The head 

 is large, w r ith large compound eyes, and three ocelli. The 

 mouth-parts are well developed both for biting, and feeding on 

 the sweets of plants, the ligula especially, used in lapping 

 nectar, being greatly developed. The other regions of the 

 body are more distinct than in other insects ; the wings are 

 small but powerful, with comparatively few and somewhat 

 irregular veins, adapted for powerful and long-sustained flights ; 

 and the genital appendages retracted, except in the Ichneu- 

 mon parasites and Saw-flies, within the body, are in the female 

 modified into a sting. 



The transformations of this suborder are the most complete 

 of all insects ; the larvae in their general form are more unlike 

 the adult insects than in any other suborder, while the pupae, 

 on the other hand, most clearly approximate to the imago. 

 The larvae are short, cylindrical, footless (excepting the young 

 of the Saw-flies, the lowest family, which are provided with 

 abdominal legs like Lepidopterous larvae), worm-like grubs, 

 wiiich are helpless, and have to be fed by the prevision of the 

 parent. The pupa has the limbs free, and is generally contained 

 in a thin silken cocoon ; that of the Saw-flies, however, being 

 thick. 



The Hymenoptera exhibit, according to Professor Dana, the 

 normal size of the insect-type. "This archetypic size is be- 



NOTE to page 106. Ray divided the Hexapods into Coleoptera and Aneloptera, 

 the latter division embracing all the other suborders except the Coleoptera. His 

 Ametamorphota Hexapoda contained the wingless hexapoda; while the Ametamor- 

 phota poly poda comprise the Myriopods, and the A. octopoda the Arachnids. Lin- 

 naeus' Aptera (with numerous feet) are equivalent to the Myriopods, and his Aptera 

 (with 8-14 feet) to the Ai-achnids. In Fabricius' system the Eleutherata are equiva- 

 lent to the Coleoptera ; the Ulonata to the Orthoptera ; the Synistata to the Neurop- 

 tera ; the Piezata to the Hymenoptera ; the Odonata to the Libellulidae ; the Glossata 

 to the Lepidoptera ; the Rhyngota to the Hemiptera; the Antliata to the Diptera. 

 The Mitosata are the Myriopods, and the Unogata, the Arachnids. In Latreille's 

 system the Suctoria, or FleasJ are now referred to the Diptera; the Parasita or 

 Lice, to the Hemiptera, and the Thysanura to the Neuroptera. 



