42 G 



ARTHROrODA 



scNcral families, the more pi-ominent being tlie IcnXFrMOXTP-T, Bracoxid.e, 

 and CiL\LCiDiD_3: i^ng. 475 i. ilio<c of ilie lirst l.ioing large, the others small or 

 minute. These are of immense \alue to agrieiilture, as the\' keep down in- 

 jurious forms as no eeonomic entomologists or inseeticides ean. 



Sub Order III. ACULK.V IW. Females with slings, lar\;v footless, luaggot- 

 like. The digger wasps ^1-\issori:s) exeavate tubes in earth or wood whieh 

 thev store with inseets paralv/.ed by tlie sling, to ser\e as lood lor the lar\a\ 

 Some true wasps ha\"o similar habits. Most wasps A'i-:s1'ARI.i:') and bees 

 (.\riARi-V:") build wonderful homes of chewed wood or leaves, earth, etc., or of 

 wax whieh the animals O'oes") secrete between the jiiints of the abdomen. The 

 nests for the voung, are either small tubes or hexagonal cells wdiich are united 

 to 'combs;' the food is either honey, pollen, or chewed fruits. The fact that the 



Ftc. 476. — Heads of .!,''.■>■ iiicIUfica (after Boas), 

 the eoutooiinj e\"cs mee 



i7, queen; I\ worker; e. dr 



with 



uiLT ;\Lio\L 



offspring are better protected when numerous individuals guard them has 

 apparently led to dilTercnt grades of social slates. The honey l>ees {■if'is 

 ■mcl!ipi\r-'), which live in a colon\', consist 01 three kinds of individuals distin- 

 guished bv structure of the heail i_hg. 47O) and other features: a single cpieen, 

 some hundred drones, and ten to thirtv thousand, just before swarming e\en 

 sixtv thousand, \\orkers. Idiese last are females and hence ha\"e stings, but 

 ha\e rudimentary fuuctionless sexual organs; their work being to build the home, 

 to protect the young, and provide food for the winter, and for the voung brood — 

 honev and pollen. The i|ueen copulates but once, at the beginning of her reign, 

 when she and a drone take a wedding llight. For the four vears of her life the 

 siierni retains its vitalilv in the recejitaculum senhnis. In laving the eggs she 

 can permit entrance or not of the spermatozoa at w ill and thus ])roduce males or 

 females. A cpteen who has not beeit fertilized can onl\- lav drone eggs. The 

 further fate of the eggs depends upon the food of the lar\;u; with a small amount 

 of bee bread (pollen) workers are jiroduced, but the same lar\a pkiced in a 

 larger cell ami fed with the 'roval jellv' will elewdop into a sexualh' mature 

 queen. Seven or eight d;iys before the escape of a new i|ueen from the royal 

 cell, the existing e|ueen with a part of the hi\e, sw.irms to found a new colony. 

 This operation may be re]ie;ited once or twice, lull if there be danger of depleting 

 the hive the remaining (|iieen l;ir\;e are killed. \\';isp and bumble-bee colonies 

 last but a \'ear with us and are ret'ormed by a ferlili/ed female which has li\ed 

 through the winter. In the (topics there are perennial colonies, like those of 

 the bees. 



The anls (FeiR:\tic.\Ri.i;) ha\e gone IxA'oiul the bees in the social organi- 

 zation. They have also departed most from the other Hymenoplcra in that the 

 workers, sometimes the sexual indi\iduals, are wingless and the sling is rudi- 

 mentary or entirely lacking. Only the Ponerida? and Alvrmicidx sling like 

 bees and wasps; the others bite and squirt the secretion of the persistent poison 

 gland (formic acid) into the wound. The homes of the ants are less wonderful 



