INSECTS 



181 



of those filmy pinions bear thee aloft on the thin air, and 

 carry thee in impetuous evolutions after thy tiny prey ! 

 But what elegant organs these wings, now still in death, 

 are ! they are like plates of talc of extremest thinness, 

 through which expands a network of nerve-ribs, a lace 

 that no collar on fair lady's neck ever equalled ; every 

 component thread of which is a tube communicating with 

 the air-pipes or lungs of the body ! How appropriate is 

 the term Neuroptera, or Nerve-wings, for such Insects as 

 these ! 



And now we come to the "industrial" classes, to use 

 an expressive term of modern coinage. The Butterflies 

 are fine ladies that go a-shopping among the flowers, the 

 Beetles are the starred and jewelled nobility, the Dragon- 

 flies are warriors, true knights-errant furnished with the 

 pomp and circumstance of war ; but the humble, useful, 

 ever busy Bee is an artisan — a representative of that class 

 who are "fruges producere nail;" and not less industrious 

 and skilful (though far from so serviceable to us) are its 

 cousins, the Wasp and the Ant. The architectural instincts 

 of these Insects we have briefly treated in the preceding 

 chapter. 



This order is termed Hymenoptera, or Membrane-icings ; 

 but the technical distinction between these and those 

 which we have just dismissed is that these possess, at least 

 in one sex, a horny tube at the extremity of the body, 

 which is sometimes connected with a poison-bag, and is 

 called a sting, and at others is simply an instrument for 

 the piercing of animal or vegetable substances, in order to 

 deposit eggs in them. But a much more obvious differ- 

 ence is found in the character of the wings, which are so 



