INSECTA. 181 



indented wings, banded transversely -with blue. Caterpil- 

 lar four inches long. 



The Ulysses (aeronauta ulysses), with black-tailed 

 wings, middle space lustrous blue, seven vitreous spots 

 on the posterior edges. This family of butterflies has 

 been divided into two races, namely, Greeks and Trojans, 

 the latter distinguished by the red spots on the breast. 



FIFTH ORDER. 

 HYMENOPTERA. BEES AND GNATS. 



Bees and gnats are distinguished from other insects by 

 having membraneous wings ; the former possessing four, 

 the latter but two, the hinder ones being only rudimen- 

 tary. The families belonging to the bee tribe are remark- 

 able for mostly living in social communities, where they 

 maintain a systematic form of government. In these 

 societies the imperfectly-developed insects are not the 

 servitors as in the ant realms, but are perfectly devel- 

 oped, although belonging to neither sex, and called work- 

 ers. The first of this race is 



The Honey Bee (apis mellifica), about half an inch 

 long, dark brown, body overgrown with fine hairs, by 

 which it collects the pollen of flowers. These useful 

 insects are furnished with four transparent wings, which 

 enable them to fly rapidly ; their heads are tolerably 

 large, and provided with a trunk or proboscis, which 

 they thrust into the nectaries of flowers to extract their 

 sweet, adhesive juices, and elaborate into honey. The 

 sting, situated at the extremity of the abdomen, is 

 barbed, hollow, and connected with a small sac in the 

 interior of the body, which is filled with an acrimonious 



