32 MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 



a very useful family, as the larvae or maggots live on plant- 

 lice — whose members are often seen sipping sweets from 

 flowers, or trying to rob honey and other bees — the one re- 

 ferred to above belonged to this family — and the Bombyliidse, 

 which in color, form and hairy covering are strikingly like 

 wild and domesticated bees. The maggots of these feed on 

 the larvae of various of our wild bees, and of course the 

 mother fly must steal into the nests of the latter to lay her 

 eggs. So in these cases, there is seeming evidence that the 

 mimicry may serve to protect these fly-tramps, as they steal 

 in to pilfer the coveted sweets or lay the fatal eggs. Possi- 

 bly, too, they may have a protective scent, as I have seen 

 them 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 high- 

 est of insects, others claim for Lepidoptera or butterflies and 

 moths a first place, while others, and with the best of rea- 

 sons, claim for Hymenoptera the highest position. The moth is 

 admired for the glory of its coloring and elegance of its form, 

 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, generally 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 sol- 

 diers, and thus are the defenders of each ant-kingdom. Ants 

 also conquer other communities, take their inhabitants cap- 

 tive and reduce them to abject slavery — requiring them to 

 perform a large portion, and sometimes the whole labor of the 

 community. Ants tunnel 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 tunnels to their under-ground homes. 



The parasitic Hymenoptera, are so called because they lay 

 their eggs in other insects, that their offspring may have 



