THE HYMENOPTERA. 
163 
a wonderful contrast there is between the gaudy butterfly or the 
magnificent Buprestis beetle, and the bee ! In the one case there 
is an existence of decorated idleness, and in the other a modest 
exterior enhances the charms of a laborious life, in which all the 
resources of the highest instinct are combined to a common end. 
Contrasts of this kind are not uncommon in Nature, and are not 
restricted to families, but are to be noticed in species, and even 
amongst individuals. There is a great amount of uniformity in 
the shapes, the physiology, and in the phases of the development 
of the Lepidoptera, and also in their methods of life and instincts. 
There are no grand differences, although there is an infinitude 
of peculiarities. 
But the distinctions between the principal types or kinds of the 
Hymenoptera are most striking. These insects, when perfect, usually 
feed upon vegetable matters, but during their larval condition some 
live upon plants, and others remain within excrescences which they 
produce upon the leaves, roots, and stems of trees. Many larvae 
are absolutely carnivorous, and live within the bodies of all kinds 
of insects ; whilst a vast number are provided for by their 
parents, and receive, as legacies, either a living thing to be fed 
upon, or a delicacy composed of honey and the pollen of flowers. 
There is every possible variety of food, and every imaginable 
method of life. 
The hymenopterous larvae differ amongst themselves in their 
conformation and in their development. Those of an entire 
family are hatched sufficiently well developed to take care of 
themselves ; they live in full daylight, and can walk, so that they 
may be compared to caterpillars. But others pass a hidden exis- 
tence, beyond the help of the outside world, because they must 
live in the place where the eggs out of which they have come 
were deposited, and, indeed, they never care to wander. There 
are some kinds which are so ill-developed that they have no 
means of locomotion, and cannot even take their food themselves, 
so that they require mothers, or a staff of nurses gifted with 
industry and sufficient intelligence to find a safe place and plenty 
of proper nourishment for their charges. 
Many Hymenoptera — unlike almost all the other insects — 
never abandon their eggs, and the love of their offspring has been 
