104 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. - 
backwards or forwards is effected in the articulations 
between the smaller pieces which connect the thigh to 
the body ; and the extent of this movement is much 
greater in the fore-legs than in the other limbs. 
These parts are all comparatively rigid, but the mode 
of arrangement of the tarsal joints, which come next 
under consideration, gives the limbs the requisite 
amount of elasticity. 
The tarsi in wasps, as in all other Hymenoptera, 
are five-jomted. In wasps the first and last joints 
are longer than the rest; but none are of very dis- 
proportionate size. ‘This circumstance, as already 
noticed, supplies an important distinctive character 
between wasps and bees, the first or proximal joint 
in bees, and particularly in the honey-bee, being much 
enlarged, flattened out and fitted with rows of hairs, 
called, from their use, pollen-brushes. Poets, into 
whose dreams the homologies of the insect skeleton 
Fig. 3.—Comparative view of the posterior tarsi 
of the wasp and honey-bee. 
a, tarsal joints of the honey-bee, with the first 
joint disproportionately larger than all the rest, 
and the tarsal hooks denticulated, as in the 
solitary wasps. 
6, tarsal joints of the wasp, with the first joint 
narrow, the tarsal hooks simple, and the end of 
o b the tibia armed with two spines. 
never entered, have incorrectly called this over-de- 
veloped joint of the foot the bee’s thigh. Each of 
the tarsal joints consists of a wedge-shaped piece, 
the point of which is received between the open 
horns of the preceding member. The ends of the 
horns of the last piece are not armed with spines, 
