24 Mimicry Among Insects, 



the Estridse, or bot-flies, the Syrphidse — a very useful family, 

 as the larvse or maggots live on plant-lice — ^whose members are 

 often seen sipping sweets from flowers, or trying to rob honey 

 and other bees — ^the one referred to above belonged to this 

 family — and the Bombyliidse, which in color, form, and hairy 

 covering are strikingly like wild and domesticated bees. The 

 maggots of these feed on the larvae of various of our wild bees, 

 and of course the mother fly must steal into 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 coveted sweets or lay the fatal 

 eggs. Possibly, too, they may have a protective scent, as I 

 have seen them 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 butterflies 

 and moths, a first place, while others, and with the best of 

 reasons, claim for Hymenoptera the highest position. 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. Hymenop- 

 tera, usually less gaudy, generally quite plain and unattractive 

 in color, are yet the most highly endowed among insects. 

 They live with a purjpose 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 inhabi- 

 tants 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 tunnels to their under-ground homes. 



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 



