CHAPTER XV 
THE SAW - FLIES, GALL - FLIES, 
ICHNEUMONS, WASPS, BEES, 
AND ANTS (Order Hymenoptera) 
EES, ants, and wasps are the familiar Hymenoptera. 
They are the “intelligent” and the “social” in¬ 
sects, and therefore seem, of all the insect hosts, 
those living the most specialized or “highest” kind 
of life. As intelligence and social life are precisely 
those characteristics of our own which most dis¬ 
tinctly set us off from other animals, we are quick 
to appreciate the worth of similar attributes in the 
“ant and bee people.” But in actual degree of 
specialization of instinct 
and behavior the perform¬ 
ances of the solitary wasps 
and bees are little less wonderful than those of 
the social kinds, and the amazing character of the 
life-history of many of the obscure and unfamiliar 
parasitic and gall-making Hymenoptera ought to 
incite as much interest and scientific curiosity as the 
marvels of the bee community. The Hymenoptera 
constitute a large order, 7500 species in this coun¬ 
try, and one of endless variety of habit and struc¬ 
ture. Few generalizations indeed can be made that 
will apply to all the members of the order, although 
there is no question concerning the true relationship 
of all the kinds of insects included in the order. Of F P’ 6 45 *- _Mo y t h-P arts °f a 
honey-bee with maxilla 
the structural characteristics common to the Hymen- and mandible of right side 
optera the clear, membranous condition of the two rem °ved.. md., mandible;, 
. . . . 1/7 mx., maxilla; mx.p., max- 
pairs of wings gives the name to the order (hymen, mary p aip U s; mx.L, max- 
membrane; pteron, wing). The front wings are diary lobe; sL, stipes of 
larger than the hind ones, and all are provided with llbiumf' °m. ”ub- 
comparatively few branched veins, whose homologies mentum of labium; m. y 
have not been fully worked out. The workers ment y m of labium; pg., 
( . . . paraglossa; gl., glossa;. 
(infertile females) of all the ant species are wingless, li.p., labial palpus. 
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