304 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
All the grubs retain tight hold of their cases by means of a pincer-like organ at the end 
of the body. When fully fed, they close the aperture at each end of the tube, and assume 
the chrysalis state, the perfect insects emerging a few weeks later. Although the wings are large 
and broad, they fly very slowly, and never seem to take more than a short journey through the 
air. They may often be seen in numbers resting upon the herbage on the banks of streams 
and ponds, or crawling down into the water in order to deposit their eggs. 
STINGING FOUR-WINGED INSECTS, OR ANTS, BEES AND WASPS, AND THEIR ALLIES 
BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S. 
THE order of insects to which the Ants, Bees, and Wasps 
belong includes a very large number of species. All these are 
provided with four membranous wings, alike in consistency, and 
provided with comparatively few nervures. The wings are 
usually of small size, as compared with the dimensions of the 
insects, but are very powerful, owing to the fore and hind 
pair being connected together during flight by a series of little 
| links; and the flight of the insects is usually very rapid. 
| These insects pass through a perfect metamorphosis, the pupa 
| I S 
hats bes Fe Dany eS ~~ being always inactive; the jaws are provided with mandibles, 
though a proboscis, or sucking-tube, is also present, and the 
abdomen of the female is armed with an ovipositor, or boring 
One of the commonest of the larger British : i i Z 3 : 
sci ai tae Wlecddlelh Batrp tosees,, neednarinis instrument, which is frequently modified into a powerful sting, 
rather more than an inch in expanse, used to deposit the eggs in their proper position. One pecu- 
with transparent wings bordered Paar . : A 
VE Petaag liarity is that several species of ants, bees, and wasps live in 
large communities, in which the bulk of the inhabitants, on 
whom most of the work of the nest falls, are imperfectly developed and usually sterile females, 
called neuters, or workers. This arrangement is also met with in the White Ants, which 
belong to the order of Lace-winged Insects. Among both the Ants and White Ants the neuters 
are unprovided with wings; but these organs are ~~ 1 
present in the fully developed males and females, 
though soon cast. 
A great variety of other insects also belong to 
this order, such as Saw-flies, Gall-flies, and an immense 
number of parasitic species, generally called Ichneu- 
mon-flies, among which are some of the smallest 
SAW-FLY 
insects known. 
This extensive order of insects is divided into two 
principal sections —those in which the ovipositor is 
used as a saw or an auger, and those in which it is 
modified into a sting. One of the most interesting 
sections of the Borers includes the SAW-FLIEs, in 
which the boring instrument is modified into a pair 
of toothed saws, which are used for cutting incisions 
in leaves, or in the tender bark of twigs, in which 
to deposit the eggs. These flies have four transparent 
wings, sometimes stained with yellow or purple, and 
their bodies are moderately stout and obtuse, and 
generally black, red, or yellow. The antenne are very | | 
variable in form, and are sometimes knobbed at the Photo by 1’. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent’s Park 
end like those of a butterfly; sometimes they are MARBLE GALL-FLY AND GALL 
formed of a number of long, slender joints; some- 
Found on oak, and not unlike the foreign gall used for 
making ink 
