140 AXTS. 



are tedious," let the mode in which the fact is intro- 

 duced by Autolycus make you amends. 



Shakspeare has noticed another insect, which, 

 although very different from those we have now 

 been considering, belongs, like them, to the order 

 Hymenoptera. Perhaps this may seem to you a 

 strange arrangement, and you may wonder that the 

 busy Uttle wingless creatures, whose habitations you 

 have now and then inadvertently disturbed or wilfully 

 invaded, shoiild be classed mth those insects which 

 are furnished with four conspicuous wings. But if 

 you have ever examined the interior of an ant's nest 

 in the month of August, you may perhaps have 

 noticed that some of the inmates appear of larger 

 dimensions than usual, and that they are adorned 

 with four wings, similar to those of a wasp, or bee. 

 These are the female ants, just after their liberation 

 from the cocoon. They soon desert the place of 

 their nativity ; and, borne on their extended wings, 

 seek for new localities in which to establish their in- 

 dustrious colonies. As soon as their new abode has 

 been selected, the object for which the wings were 

 given is accomplished. These now useless append- 

 ages are laid aside, not metaphorically, but literally. 

 They are actually thrown off by the exertions of the 

 insect herself, who now sedulously commences to 

 lay the foundations of her populous kingdom.* 

 * See Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 370. 



