34$ ARTICULATA. INSECTA. 



ORDER IX. HYMENOPTERA.* 



LIKE the last Order, the Hymenoptera have four 

 naked transparent wings ; but the fore wings are 

 always the largest, and so linked by the edge to 

 the hind pair as to look like a single pair ; the 

 nervures are very few, and not netted ; the abdo- 

 men is furnished with a tube, which in some species 

 serves merely for the deposition of the eggs ; in 

 others it is connected with a poison-bag, and forms 

 a venomous sting. They have jaws and mandibles, 

 but several genera have the former modified into a 

 tubular fleshy sucker, with which the nectar of 

 flowers is sucked or licked up. 



Their larva and pupae differ greatly. In some, 

 the former take the appearance of many-footed ca- 

 terpillars, feeding on leaves, and the latter are in- 

 closed in a tough leathery cocoon ; but in most 

 cases the larva is a white maggot without feet, and 

 the pupa has its limbs folded down, as in that of 

 a Beetle. The food of the Hymenoptera varies 

 greatly, and is often connected with singular habits 

 and instincts, some of which we shall notice as we 

 proceed. 



Of those which have a projecting egg- tube instead 

 of a poisonous sting, none are more remarkable than 



* 'T>!v, hymen, membrane, and -rrsgov, pteron, a wing. 



