STINGERS AND PIERCERS. 513 
The young of all the stinging Hymenoptera are soft, 
white, and maggot-shaped, and arc without legs ; some of 
those of the Piercers have the same form, but the others 
more nearly resemble grubs and caterpillars, having a horny 
head, and six jointed legs, and some of them numerous 
fleshy prop-legs besides. The latter, when food fails them 
in one place, are able to creep to another, and can look out 
for themselves a proper place of shelter, wherein to go 
through with their transformations. The others are ex- 
ceedingly helpless, and depend wholly upon the instinctive 
foresight of their parents, or the daily care of attentive 
nurses, for their food and habitations. When fully grown, 
nearly all of these young insects spin oblong oval cocoons, 
wherein they change to chrysalids, and finally to winged 
insects. A few, however, never obtain wings in the adult 
state ; but these arc mostly certain neuter and female ants, 
the males of which possess wings. With the exception of 
the white ants, belonging to another order, it is only 
among Hymenopterous insects that we find certain indi- 
viduals constantly barren, and hence called neuters. These 
form the principal part of those communities of bees, of 
wasps, and of ants, that unite in making a habitation for 
the whole swarm, and in providing a stock of provisions 
for their own use, and for that of their helpless brood ; 
and nearly or quite all the labor falls upon these industri- 
ous neuters, whose care and affection for the young, which 
they foster and shelter, could not be greater were they 
their own offspring. 
Hymenopterous insects love the light of the sun ; they 
take wing only during the daytime, and remain at rest in 
the night, and in dull and wet weather. They excel all 
other insects in the number and variety of their instincts, 
which are wonderfully displayed in the methods employed 
by them in providing for the comfort and the future wants 
of their offspring. In the introductory chapter some re- 
marks have already been made on then - habits and economy ; 
65 
