Bees the Higliest of Insects. 25 



insect fed upon generally lives 'till the young parasite, whicli 

 is woi-king to disembowel it, is full-grown. Thus this steak is 

 ever fresh as life itself. These parasitic insects show wondrous 

 intelligence, or sense development, in discovering their prey. 

 I have caught ichneumon-flies — a family of these parasites — 

 boring through an eighth or quarter-inch of solid beech or 

 maple wood, and upon examination I found the prospective 

 victim further on in direct line with the insect auger, which 

 was to intrude the fatal egg. I have also watched ichneumon- 

 flies depositing eggs in leaf-rolling caterpillars, so surrounded 

 with tough hickory leaves that the fly had to pierce several 

 thicknesses to place the egg in its snugly-ensconced victim. 

 Upon putting these leaf-rolling- caterpillars in a box, I reared, 

 of course, the ichneumon-fly and not the moth. And is it instinct 

 or reason that enables these flies to gauge the number of their 

 eggs to the size of the larva which is to receive them, so that 

 there may be no danger of famine and starvation, for true it 

 is that while small caterpillars will receive but one egg, 

 large ones may receive several. How strange, too, the habits 

 of the saw-fly, with its wondrous instruments, more perfect 

 than any saws of human workmanship, and the gall-flies, 

 whose poisonous stings, as they fasten their eggs to the oak, 

 willow, or other leaves, cause the abnormal growth of food 

 for the still unhatched young. The providing and caring for 

 their young, which are at first helpless, is peculiar among 

 insects, with slight exception, to the Hymenoptera, and among 

 all animals is considered a mark of high rank. Such marvels 

 of instinct, if we may not call it intelligence, such acumen of 

 sense perception, such habits — that must go hand-in-hand with 

 the most harmonious of communities known among animals, 

 of whatever branch — all these, no less than the compact struc- 

 ture, small size and specialized organs of nicest finish, more than 

 warrant that grand trio of Americaai naturalists, Agassiz, Dana, 

 and Packard, in placing Hymenoptera first in rank among in- 

 sects. As we shajl detail the structure and habits of the highest 

 of the high — the bees — in the following pages, I am sure no one 

 win think to degrade the rank of these wonders of the animal 

 kingdom. 



FAMILY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The honey-bee belongs to the family Apidse, of Leach, 

 which includes not only the hive bee but all insects which feed 



