GEOIvOGY OF IvA SALylvK COUNTY. 



85 



the bullhead, A. Melas, the Gar — Lepidosteus osseus 

 and platystomus. Shovel-nosed Sturg-eon — Scaphi- 

 rhynchops platyrhynchus. 



While the reports of the Fish Commission give 

 lists of fishes from the streams of many parts of our 

 country, there are none from Illinois, and the above 

 list is but an approximation to the truth. 



INSECTS— ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Entomolog-y of La Salle county would be 

 that of a vast reg'ion, and would alone fill a volume 

 much larger than this, but the material for the full 

 treatment of the subject does not exist, and it would 

 be a work of much time and labor to gather it and 

 prepare it for publication. The following notes are 

 but the beginning of such a work. 



Hymenoptera — Insects having- four membranous, 

 m(-re or less, transparent wings, with branching veins. 

 The males are not armed; the females are. 



The Honey or Common Bee — Apis — ; Humble bee 

 — Bombus, several species; carpenter bees — Xyloco- 

 pha; Leaf Cutters — Megachile; Mason bees — Osmia; 

 the Wasp— Vespa; of which the hornet is a species; 

 wood wasps— crabo, which burrow in wood; mud 

 w^asps — Sphegidae, which build nests of mud, and 

 others. 



The Ants — Formicariae — also belong here, as 

 also the Ichneumonidae, noted for their long piercers 

 or stings, called "ovipositor." They are mortal ene- 

 mies of most other insects. To this section also 

 belong many of the gall flies, all of which are injuri- 

 ous to vegetation. The saw^ flies, which are all tree 

 borers, and whose larva live in the trunks of trees as 

 grubs, belong here. 



