Ordei- iiymenoptera. 27 



the nests of the latter to lay her eggs. So in these case? 

 there is seeming evidence that the mimicry may serve 

 to protect these fly-tramps as they steal in to pilfer the cov- 

 eted sweets or lay the fatal eggs. Possibly, too, they may 

 have a protective scent, as they have been seen to 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 butter- 

 flies and moths, a first place, while others, and with the 

 best of reasons, claim for Hymenoptera the highest posi- 

 tion. 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. Hymenoptera, usually less gaudy, gen- 

 erally quite plain and unattractive in color, are yet the 

 most highly endowed among insects. They live with a 

 purpose 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 

 inhabitants captive, and reduce them to abject slavery — ■ 

 requiring them to perform a large portion, aiid 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 tun- 

 nels to their underground homes. Indeed the Agricult- 

 ural ant, of Texas, actually clears land and grows a special 

 kind of plant on which it feeds. (See McCook's Ants.) 



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 insect fed upon generally lives till the young 

 parasite, which is working to disembowel it, is full-grown; 



