INSECTS 43 



single season the swarm in the observation hive on the fourth 

 floor of the Morris High School in New York City produced 

 fifty-six pounds of honey in the super boxes, besides laying 

 by in the brood chamber a sufficient supply for their winter 

 support. 



36. Relatives of the bees. — Wasps and hornets belong to the 

 same order of insects as the bees, and resemble them more or less 

 closely in structure. Some kinds of wasps build paper comb from 

 wood which they chew up with their jaws. Ants, insects with which 

 every one is familiar, are likewise classed with the bees and wasps, 

 and the social cormnunities that they form are marvelous in the 

 degree to which they carry division of labor. In some ant colonies 

 in addition to the workers there are soldiers and slaves. 



IV. Mosquitoes and Flies 



36. Life history of the common inland or house mosquito. 



— The eggs of the common house mosquito are laid by the 

 female in little rafts that float on the surface of stagnant 

 water. These egg masses look like flecks of black soot, but 

 when examined with a hand lens each is. found to consist 

 of 200 to 400 cartridge-shaped eggs standing on end (Fig. 

 31). If the weather is warm and other conditions are favor- 

 able, the eggs hatch within a day into tiny mosquito larvse, 

 which are known as " wrigglers " from their characteristic 

 motion in the water. 



In the second stage in its life history, which usually lasts 

 about a week, the mosquito larva feeds on the microscopic 

 plants and animals that abound in all stagnant water, and 

 grows rapidly. Just as was the case with the butterfly and 

 moth caterpillars, this rapid growth necessitates the frequent 

 shedding or molting of the outer covering of the larva and 

 the formation of a new and larger coat. Hence, in water 



