CLASS I. INSECTA: ORDEE 3. IIYMENOPTERA. 
567 
in a delicate skin, and each limb separately inclosed. The order is divided into two groups, the 
Petiolata and the Securifera. 
THE PETIOLATA. 
These are distinguished by the maggot-like form of their larvae, and the union of the abdomen 
with the thorax by the intervention of a slender footstalk. They comprise several very interest- 
ing tribes. 
THE ANTHOPHILA. 
This tribe, as the name imports, consists of the Floiver-Lovers ; by some authors they are 
called Mellifcra^ or Honey-Bearers : all, how- 
ever, pass under the popular designation of 
Bees. The different species of these amount 
to many hundreds, probably to thousands ; 
in England alone there are two hundred and 
fifty species. We can only mention a few 
of the more remarkable. 
We begin with the Honey-Bee, Apis 
mellifica of Linnteus, to which we are in- 
debted for honey and wax, and which from 
the earliest ages, has excited the admiration 
of mankind by its industry, and its wonder- 
ful instincts. The extent of its utility may 
YJ- be inferred from the fact that in 1850, no 
less than fifteen millions of pounds of honey 
and wax were gathered from bees in the 
United States, alone. The quantity annually 
obtained throughout the world amounts to 
hundreds of millions. The amazing endow- 
ments of these minute creatures will be best 
understood by a recital of their habits and 
economy. They are said to have originated 
in Greece, but have since spread all over the 
world ; they live in colonies composed of from 
ten to thirty thousand neuter or WorJcing 
Bees, of from six to eight hundred males callei. Drones, and of a single female, which seems to 
reign as Queen. They establish their dwellings in the trunk of some ancient tree, or in the hive 
Avhich man prepares for them, and to the working bees belong the labors to which the society 
owes its existence. Of these, some are the wax-gatherers, which go abroad to collect the food 
and the materials for the construction of the comb ; to others, called muses, is assigned the task 
of watching over the young. 
The working bee, for collecting the w^ax, enters a flower, the stamens of Avhicli are loaded with 
pollen. This dust attaches 
itself to the brush-like hairs 
covering the body of the 
bee, when, by rubbing it- 
self with the brushes with 
which the tarsi are fur- 
nished, the insect collects 
it into little parcels, which 
it places on small palettes, 
hollowed out on the sur- 
face of its hind limbs. By 
the aid of mandibles the 
THE QUEEN lit-E, MAGNIFIED. THE BRONB, MAGNIFIED. 
working bees detach from the surface of plants a resinous matter called propolis, and with it they 
THE HONEY-BEE. 
