THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE GROUP. 4L3 



check. Dr. W. II. Ashmead, in liis treatise on the II;i\v;iiian forms, discusses four- 

 teen families belonging' to this suborder, to which he refers one hundred and 

 twenty-eight species as belonging- to sixty-nine genera. P>ighty-seven of the 

 species were described by him as new. I'o this number several species have 

 since been added, but as the very largest Hawaiian species do not exceed 

 twenty millimeters, and by far the greater number are less than five milli- 

 meters in length, and as a great many have been described from a single 

 s])eeimen, we may infer that, in spite of theii' interesting habits, they are too 

 small to attract much attention from the layman. 



The stinging HijHicuopii ra includes about two lumdred ■well -marked spe- 

 cies. Of these a large number are peculiar to the islands. As the majority 

 of the species are fair-sized, handsome insects, the.y have been more extensively 

 collected. The group includes the ants, digger-wasps, the true wasps and the 

 bees. To the twenty species of ants ^ listed by Prof. A. Forel as occurring in Ha- 

 waii, six species have since been added, the majority of which are new arrivals. 

 As a matter of fact, there appears to be but one or two endemic species of ants 

 in the islands. Most of those found here are slightly-varied forms of widely- 

 distributed species. Only one species (Poncra perkiusi) is definitely stated to 

 be Hawaiian. It occurs in small colonies of a dozen or so in moist localities 

 high in the mountains. 



Ants occur commonly in great numbers about houses, and ever\'where 

 attract attention owing to their so-called instinctive powers. They invarial)l\- 

 live in organized comnumities or colonies, and exhibit as great a variety of 

 habits and customs as do the people living in the islands, for the people, like 

 the ants, have been brought together in Plawaii from many foreign lands. The 

 ants found here live under boards and stones, and in the ground, and are as 

 industrious and thrifty as those King Solomon observed, to find that they, 

 having no guide, overseer or ruler, provided meat in the summer and gathered 

 food in the harvest. 



The home life of ants for obvious reasons has not been as fnlly studied as 

 has that of the bees, but the division of labor in the colony is known to he 

 even more complex. Their habits furnish an interesting and ever-present field 

 for study and observation by old and young. 



The digger-wasps, or Fossores,*"' may be I'eadily disiingnished IVom the 

 true wasps by the fact that their wings, when at i-est. lie tiat o\'er the haeU and 

 the legs are arranged for walking or digging. There are about thii-ty-five 

 species so far reported from Hawaii, the most common being the introduced 

 mud-dauber''' belonging to the thread-wai.sted wasp '^ family. They are to be 

 seen building their nests about lanais and outbuildings. AVheii the nest is com- 

 pleted the eggs are deposited and the cell provisioiu'd with spiders. The truly 

 native species are reported to prey entir(4y upon tlies. '{'he principal genus, 

 Crabro, represented by fifteen species, is disti-ibuted in the mountains of the 

 larger islands. 



5 Furtiiicidfr. " Sphecina. ' Piliijxcus civtiieittariii.s. * Sphegidce. 



