and Position of the Hymenoptera. 95 



the thorax ; in having the three regions of the body more dis- 

 tinctly marlced and more equally developed than in other insects. 

 The mouth- parts are more equally developed, and at the same 

 time more diflferentiated in structure and function ; there are no 

 abdominal jointed appendages present in the adult form, while 

 the external generative organs are more symmetrically developed 

 and more completely enclosed within the abdomen in the highest 

 families than in any other suborder of Insects. They afford the 

 highest types of Articulates, being more compact, less loosely 

 put together, and thus presenting less of degradational features 

 than any of the other suborders ; but the most valuable single 

 character is the transfer of the first abdominal ring forwards to 

 the adjoining region, which involves an entire remodelling of 

 the body, t\ivoyi'm^ forwards the prime elements of the organism, 

 by which it becomes more cephalized, and thus the nervous 

 power is rendered more centralized than in all other Articulates. 

 Selecting the Honey-bee as the type, being, in our view, the . 

 most perfectly organized of all insects, we find the head larger 

 and the abdomen smaller in proportion than in other insects, 

 accompanied with the most equable and compact development 

 of the parts composing these regions. The brain-ganglia are 

 largest and most developed, according to the studies of ento- 

 motomists. The larvae, in their general form, are more unlike 

 the adult insects than in any other suborder of Insects, while 

 the pupae most closely approximate to the imago. They are 

 short, cylindrical, footless, worm-like grubs, which are helpless, 

 and have to be fed by the prevision of the parents. In under- 

 going a more complete metamorphosis than any other insects, 

 in the unusual difi'erentiation of the sex into males and females 

 and sterile females or workers, with a further dimorphism of 

 these three sexual forms and a consequent subdivision of labour 

 among them — in dwelling in large colonies, thus involving new 

 and intricate relations between the individuals of the species 

 and other insects — their wonderful instincts, their living on the 

 sweets and pollen of flowers, and not beiog carnivorous in their 

 habits as are the Neuroptera and a large proportion of the 

 Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, and Diptera, and their rela- 

 tion to man as a domestic animal subservient to his wants, — 

 the bees, and Hymenoptera in general, possess a combination of 

 characters which are not found existing in any other suborder 

 of Insects, and which we must believe rank them first and highest 

 in the insect series. 



Likewise the Hymenoptera are more purely terrestrial insects 

 than all others. The Neuroptera are, as a whole, water-insects : 

 their larvae live in the water, and the perfect insects live near 

 streams and pools. The Orthoptera are more terrestrial. Among 



