HYMENOPTEKA. 1 55 



for food and safety. With the solitary wasps and the 

 bees, the food is stored in the locule in which the larva 

 hatches. The same is true of the gallfly, where the 

 sap of the wounded plant furnishes food for the gallfly 

 maggot. The parasitic ichneumons place their eggs 

 in situations of abundant food supply for the hatching 

 grubs. The young hymenopter is unable to provide food 

 for itself, but grows up on the food which the careful 

 mother provides. This dependence reaches its climax 

 in the community wasps, bees, and ants, especially in the 

 ants. Here certain workers bring food to the larvae 

 continually until pupation takes place; and even the 

 pupse are carefully carried about to places of warmth 

 or safety. 



Bees. 



There are several sorts of flies that closely resemble 

 bees in their hairy bodies, shape, and general appearance, 

 but ■v^U be found to have only one pair of wings. The 

 clear- winged Hemaris among the moths looks' very much 

 like a bumblebee with its black and yellow hairy body, 

 but its wings always have some scales on them. The 

 bees, while not very difificult to recognize, may always be 

 distinguished by the absence of scales on their wings, by 

 the presence of feathery or branched hairs on head and 

 thorax, and the enlargement of the mandibles for trowel- 

 ing wax or for tunneling in wood or ground. 



The antennae of the bees are bent near the head, and 

 their terminal segments are provided with numerous 

 sense-pits and papillae; these pits are supposed to be 

 organs of taste and feeling, and they also probably serve 

 the purpose of olfactory organs. The sense of smell 

 reaches its highest development in the community 



