CLASS I. INSECTA: ORDER 3. II Y M ENOPTER A, 



557 



in a delicate skin, and each limb separately inclosed. The order is divided into two groups, the 

 Petiolata and the Securifera. 



THE PETIOLATA. 



Tliese are distinguished by the maggot-like form of their larva?, and the union of the abdomen 

 with the thorax by the intervention of a slender footstalk. They comprise several very interest- 

 ing tribes. 



THE ANTHOPHILA. 



This tribe, as the name imports, consists of the Flower-Lovers ; by some authors they arc 



called Mellifera, or Honey-Bearers : all, how- 

 ever, pass under the popular designation of 

 Bees. The different species of these amount 



to many hundreds, probably to thousands ; 

 in England alone there are two hundred and 

 fifty species. We can only mention a few 

 of the more remarkable. 



We begin with the Honey-Bee, Apis 

 mcllifica of Linnteus, to which we are in- 

 debted for honey and wax, and which from 

 the earliest ages, has excited the admiration 

 of mankind by its industry, and its wonder- 

 ful instincts. The extent of its utility may 

 be inferred from the fjict that in 1850, no 

 less than iifteen millions of pounds of honey 

 ^/TLs and wax were gathered from bees in the 

 /W^ United States, alone. The quantity annually 

 \"^ obtained throughout the world amounts to 

 hundreds of millions. The amazing endow- 

 ments of these minute creatures will be best 

 understood by a recital of their habits and 

 economy. They are said to have originated 

 in Greece, but have since spread all over the 

 world ; they live in colonies composed of from 

 ten to thirty thousand neuter, or Working 

 Bees, of from six to eight hundred males callct. Drones, and of a single female, which seems to 

 reign as Queen. They establish their dwellings in the trunk of some ancient tree, or in the hive 

 which man prepares for them, and to the working bees belong the labors to which the society 

 owes its existence. Of these, some ai'e the tuax-gatherers, which go abroad to collect the food 

 and the materials for the construction of the comb ; to others, called nurses, is assigned the task 

 of watching over the young. 



The working bee, for collecting the wax, enters a tlower, the stamens of which are loaded with 



pollen. This dust attaches 



^ 



THE UONET-BEB. 



itself to the brush-like hairs 

 covering the body of the 

 bee, Avhen, by rubbing it- 

 self with the brushes with 

 which the tarsi are fur- 

 nished, the insect collects 

 it into little parcels, which 

 it places on small palettes, 

 hollowed out on the sur- 

 face of its hind limbs. By 

 the aid of mandibles the 

 working bees detach from the surface of plants a resinous matter called propolis, and with it they 



THE QUEEN bbE, MAGXIFIEO. 



