OTHER INSECTS. 205 
Among the bees, wasps, etc., we find a large number of 
insects that can inflict a very severe sting. But as a very 
general rule they sting only when provoked, in self-defense, 
or if they fear for their young. . None can therefore be called 
true parasites of man. Yet ants, at the time when they 
swarm and cover everything with their active bodies, are 
not infrequently called parasites. The ant shown in fig. 170 

Fig. 170.—Winged ant, Myrmica scabrinodis Nyl. Greatly enlarged. Original. 
(Myrmica scabrinodis Nyl.) was captured during September 
in an open street-car. Passing through a swarm of these 
ants the car was taken by storm, and in a very few min- 
utes all the legitimate passengers were stamping, shaking 
and investigating their clothes. And not in vain, as the per- 
plexed looks of the ladies and of some of the gentlemen 
clearly showed. If one of the ants was roughly handled 
in putting it off the car it was not slow to retaliate, and 
a bite with the: formidable jaws shown in the illustration, 
and a poisonous sting, soon convinced everyone in that car 
that a more tender handling of these intruders was the bet- 
ter and safer method of dislodging them. 
