60 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
fastidious bees. For the free use of such a_ bee- 
house, and for unfailmg supplies of bees, I have 
great pleasure in acknowledging my obligations to 
Mrs. Eardley Hall, of Henfield. 
The structure of the Hymenoptera is peculiarly 
interesting, and has always occupied a prominent 
place in treatises on the Anatomy of Insects. I 
would refer those who may be desirous of more and 
more exact information on the details of this subject 
than I can give or find room for here to the works of 
Newport* and Burmeister.f On very difficult points 
I have preferred to refer to their descriptions, rather 
than to speak from the partial and imperfect ap- 
pearances of my own dissections. In matters of 
which anyone with time and patience may master 
the details I have not consciously leant upon their 
assistance except to confirm my own observations. 
There can be no doubt about the part with which 
the description should begin :-— 
The skeleton on which the soft tissues are hung, 
the frame which gives form to the animal and sup- 
plies the necessary points of resistance to the action 
of its muscles, is, in insects, placed outside. Their 
horny skin is also their skeleton. It has been dis- 
puted whether this integument should be regarded 
as skin or bone. Its anatomical structure certainly 
rather favours the first conclusion.{ The laminated 
arrangement, and the form and position of the com- 
* ¢ Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology,’ article Insecta. 
+ ‘Manual of Entomology,’ translated by Shuckard. 8vo. 1836. 
t ‘ Catalogue of the Histological Series,’ College of Surgeons’ Mu- 
seum, Vol. I, p. 246. . 
