BRANCH ARTHROPODS; CLASS INSECTA : THE INSECTS 215 



The ants, bees, and wasps are called the stinging 

 Hymenoptera, although the ants we have in North 

 America have their sting so reduced as to be no longer 

 usable. Among these Hymenoptera are the social or 

 communal insects, viz., all the ants, the bumblebees and 

 honey-bee, and the few social wasps, as the yellow-jacket 



FIG. 79. The currant-stem girdler, Janus integer, a Hymenopteron at 

 work girdling a stem after having deposited an egg in the stem half an 

 inch lower down. (Photograph by M. V. Slingerland.) 



and black hornet. There are many more species of non- 

 social or solitary bees and wasps than social ones, and 

 their habits and instincts are nearly as remarkable. 



The solitary and digger wasps do not live in com- 

 munities as the hornets do, but each female makes a nest 

 or several nests of her own, lays eggs and provides for 



