INSECT LORE 



Apis the bee, Vespa the wasp, and Arachne the 

 spider — these might properly figure in many a 

 saga. Mighty are the works of the tribes of Apis, 

 while Bombus the bumblebee befriends the pale 

 flowers of the forest as do the winds the pine. 

 Arachne beguiles the fly, for she is a very Medusa ; 

 the solitary wasp slays the Gorgon and lays her in 

 the tomb she has prepared, rolling a stone over 

 the entrance; lastly, from the body of the spider 

 springs the race of wasps, like warriors from drag- 

 ons' teeth in the days of Jason. 



From the first flowering shrubs to the last gold- 

 cnrod there is the hum of industry. The willows, 

 on mild April days, resound with the roar of in- 

 sert traffic. The bees push in rudely among the 

 bunches of stamens, and the red anthers so neatly 

 and compadtly arranged are soon disheveled, the 

 filaments bent by the myriad inseft legs which 

 scramble and kick through them. It is every- 

 where bustle and hurry; all are wrought to a 



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