Order LHymenoptera, 247 
the nests of the latter to lay her eggs. So in these cases 
there is seeming evidence that the mimicry may serve 
to protect these fly-tramps as they steal in to pilfer the cov- 
eted sweets or lay the fatal eggs. Possibly, too, they may 
have a protective scent, as they have been seen to enter a 
hive in safety, though a bumble-bee essaying to do the 
same found the way barricaded with myriad cimeters each 
with a poisoned tip. 
Some authors have placed Coleoptera, or beetles, as the 
highest of insects, others claim for Lepidoptera, or butter- 
flies and moths, a first place, while others, and with the 
best of reasons, claim for Hymenoptera the highest posi- 
tion. The moth is admired for the glory of its coloring 
and elegance of its form, and the beetle for the luster and 
brilliancy of its elytra,or wing-covers; but these insects 
only revel in nature’s wealth, and live and die without 
labor or purpose. Hymenoptera, usually less gaudy, gen- 
erally quite plain and unattractive in color, are yet the 
most highly endowed among insects. They live with a 
purpose in view, and are the best models of industry to be 
found among animals. Our bees practice a division - of 
labor; the ants are still better political economists, as they 
have a specially endowed class in the community who are 
the soldiers, and thus are the defenders of each ant-king- 
dom. Ants also conquer other communities, take their 
inhabitants captive, and reduce them to abject slavery— 
requiring them to perform a large portion, and sometimes 
the whole of the labor of the community. Ants tunnel 
under streams, and in the tropics some leaf-eating species 
have been observed to show no mean order of intelligence, 
as some ascend trees to cut off the leafy twigs, while others 
remain below and carry these branches through their tun- 
nels to their underground homes. Indeed the Agricult- 
ural ant, of Texas, actually clears land and grows a special 
kind of plant on which it feeds, (See McCook’s Ants.) 
The parasitic Hymenoptera are so called because they 
lay their eggs in other insects, that their offspring may 
have fresh meat not only at birth, but so long as they need 
"food, as the insect. fed upon generally lives till the young 
parasite, which is working to disembowel it, is full-grown; 
