clothed with short, scattered bristles. Larvae generally footless ; 

 pupae inactive. There are some species of Hymenoptera 

 which remain without wings in one or both sexes. Neuter 

 ants are wingless, and even the male and female ants get 

 wings for a little while only. There is one class of Hymen- 

 optera, the ovipositors of which instead of being adapted 

 as stinging organs, are specially adapted as boring instru- 

 ments. The Tenthredinidae or saw flies come under this 

 class. No injurious insects coming under this class have 

 been noticed in India, though the turnip saw-fly, the corn 

 saw-fly, the gooseberry saw-fly, are common pests in Eu- 

 rope. Of the stinging class, parasites belonging to the three 

 families Formicidae (ants), Ichneumonidae (blue-bottles) and 

 Chalcididae, are fairly common in India. Ants, bees and 

 wasps, living in communities and exhibiting wonderful intelli- 

 gence, are very interesting insects to study ; but they can be 

 hardly regarded in the light of parasites. Ants do more good 

 than harm in eating up grubs of parasites, and specially in 

 capturing and destroying aphides and tunnel making grubs. 

 Ants do occasionally spoil a crop of potatoes by burrowing 

 holes in them and eating up the starch. They are also found 

 attacking seedlings which are usually rich in glucose, e. g., 

 seedlings of brinjals and cabbages, ichneumon flies which 

 are like slender and small wasps in appearance, have very 

 prominent ovipositors. They are usually helpful to agri- 

 culture being parasitic on a number of wild caterpillars, e.g. t 

 Pimplapunctator which is a long bodied yellow and black 

 wasp-like insect with a very prominent trifurcated hairy 

 ovipositor. Pteromalus Oryzae (Fig. 65 a), is a minute 

 copper-green ichneumon which may be seen in rice godowns, 

 and which is believed to be parasitic upon wheat and rice 

 weevils. The largest number of Indian Hymenoptera helpful 

 to agriculture belong to the family Chalcididae. Their ovipo- 

 sitor is prominent, they have wings with very few veins; 

 their habits, as a rule, are parasitic. Cotesia Flavipes (Figi 



