ENTOMOLOGY IX OUTLINE HYMENOPTERA. 121 



Superfamily Apina. (Bees.) 



We now come to the bees, the last and highest of the Hymenoptera. 

 It is here that we find the greatest intelligence displayed in the insect 

 world. No insect has been so thoroughly studied as the bee. Books 

 and libraries have been written about bees, and the most wonderful 

 stories told of their intelligence, which would seem to far exceed any- 

 thing we can call instinct and to closely approach human reason. They 

 present to us the highest known type of social life, and the most perfect 

 form of government. 



Bees have been placed under the superfamily Apina, which is divided 

 into two families, the Andrenidse and the Apidse, or the short- and 

 the long-tongued bees. The habits of members of the different families 

 vary greatly. Some are solitary, making a nest for themselves, and 

 storing it with honey and pollen. Others can live only in communities. 

 Some are very small, one of the mining-bees measuring but from one 

 hundredth to three hundredths of an inch in length. 



So far as relates to agriculture, bees are beneficial. They are not 

 parasitic, like some of the other families of the order, although there are 

 some bees parasitic on others, but in their work of gathering honey 

 they are one of the greatest agencies in nature in the fertilization of 

 plants. 



Many species of both families are troubled by parasitic or cuckoo 

 bees. These build no nest for themselves, but look out for a nest of the 

 mason, carpenter, or other bee. When she discovers one at work, she 

 watches, and as fast as the cells are completed, lays an egg at the 

 bottom. This egg hatches before the egg of the rightful owner, and 

 the larva of the intruder proceeds to eat the provisions stored by the 

 careful mother of the rightful owner, and finally consummates its evil 

 work by eating the young of the nest-builder. 



Of the social bees, including the honey-bee, little need be said here, 

 as the subject is too great to be handled in a few pages, and our object 

 is merely to draw attention to the science of entomology, not to enlarge 

 upon it, and also to draw special attention to those families which are 

 either directly beneficial or injurious to our orchards. 



The foregoing will serve to give our readers some general idea of the 

 important science of Entomology. As stated at the commencement, 

 the work is not designed to be thorough in any respect, and pretends 

 only to give an introduction to this great science. Those of our readers 

 who wish to follow it to a greater extent are referred to the following 

 works : 



"Entomology for Beginners," by A. S. Packard; "American Insects," 

 by Vernon L. Kellogg; "Manual for the Study of Insects," by John 



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