344 ARTICULATA. INSECTA. 



dead or dying body. Sometimes, however, the cater- 

 pillar becomes a chrysalis before the Ichneumon is 

 perfected. 



Those Hymenoptera which are furnished with a 

 formidable weapon of offence in a sharp, slender 

 sting, concealed within the body, but protruded at 

 will, and connected with a reservoir of poison, con- 

 tain many tribes of high interest. Many of them 

 live in societies, and in these, besides the males and 

 females, there is often a third class of individuals 

 by far the most numerous, called neuters, in which 

 the sex is not developed. To do anything like 

 justice, however, to the economy of the Hive-bees, 

 (Apis,*) Humble-bees, (Bombus*) Ants, (Formica,*) 

 and Wasps, (Vespa*) would vastly exceed our space; 

 we are therefore compelled to content ourselves with 

 a mere mention of them, and a slight notice of others 

 which are less known. 



As the Spiders seem to make winged insects their 

 natural prey, so there are some Flies which, by an 

 equitable application of the lex talionis, live only 

 upon Spiders. They have been called Burrowing 

 Wasps, and belong to the genus Sphex-\ of Lin- 

 naeus. Many of them dig holes in the earth with 

 their feet, in which they lay their eggs, enclosing 

 with them one or more Spiders, which they have 

 so stung as to paralyze, but not to kill them ; the 

 young grub when hatched feeds upon the bodies of 

 the yet living Spiders. We once witnessed with 



* Latin names of these insects, 

 t 2^|, spliex* a wasp. 



