The fine insect called Chlorion lobatum, which is shown in the centre of the illustration on page 501, is a formidable but useful creature, waging fierce war against cockroaches, those pests of Oriental houses. Its services are fully appreciated by the natives, none of whom would kill one of these insects on any account, or permit any one to injure it. With the slaughtered cockroaches it stocks its nest as a provision for the young when they escape from the egg. These insects are tolerably numerous, and are all remarkable for the bright and yet deep purple and green of their bodies, and sometimes of their wings.

AT the right-hand of the accompanying illustration may be seen a curious wingless insect, with head disproportionately large, when the size of its body is taken into consideration. This is an example of a family where the females, although armed with a powerful sting, are quite destitute of wings. Most of the Mutillidæ are exotic, requiring a large amount of heat to preserve them in health, only a very few being natives of our own country. In some of the larger species the sting is fearfully poisonous, a single insect having been known to make a man so seriously ill that he lost his senses a few minutes after being stung, and his life was despaired of for some time. A child has been known to die from the effects of the sting inflicted by the Scarlet Mutilla of North America, an insect whose weapon is as long as the abdomen. All these insects appear to be sand-borers.

THE last-mentioned insect evidently affords a transitional link between the previous families of Hymenoptera and the true Ants, or Formicidæ. These insects, as is well known, associate in great numbers, and as is peculiarly the case with the bees, the great bulk of their numbers is composed of workers, or neuters, which are destined to perform the constant labours needful to regulate so large a community. The perfect insects of either sex take no part in the daily tasks, their sole object being to keep up the numbers of the establishment. In the Ants, moreover, the neuters are without wings, and even the perfect insects only retain these organs for a brief period of their existence.

Every one has heard of the objects called ants' eggs, which are so strongly recommended as food for the nightingale and other birds, and many persons though they have seen them, have believed them really to be the objects which their popular name would In truth, however, they are the cocoons of the stingless ants, in which the insects are passing their pupal state before emerging in their winged condition. It has been already mentioned, that only the perfect males and females possess wings.

infer.

500

THE TOWER-BUILDING WASP.

As soon as they gain sufficient strength, they fly upward into the air, where they seek their mates and soon descend to earth. The males, having now nothing to do, speedily die, as they ought, but the females begin to make provision for their future households. Their first proceeding is a rather startling one, being the rejection of the wings which had so lately borne them through the air. This object is achieved by pressing the ends of the wings against the ground, and then forcing them suddenly downwards. The wing then snaps off at the joint, and the creature thus reduced to the wingless state of a worker, is seized upon and conveyed to a suitable spot, where she begins to supply a vast quantity of eggs. These are carefully conveyed away and nurtured until they burst forth into the three states of male, female, and neuter, the precise method by which the development is arrested so as to produce the neuter condition not being very accurately known.

The remaining three figures on the illustration represent different species of Ants, the two larger species being natives of Brazil. In the tropics, the Ants are alternately curses and blessings to the inhabitants. They are terribly destructive, they eat everything softer than stone or metal, they swarm in houses, on the plains, and in woods, and occasionally they march in vast armies, taking a line as direct as the old Roman roads, and not to be stopped by any less obstacle than a river. They pass through houses, and at their approach all the human inhabitants vacate the premises, none daring to oppose so redoubtable a foe. In this case, however, the visits of the Ants are greatly beneficial, for in a very short time the column will have passed fairly through the house, and left no living creature within its walls; beetles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, reptiles, and even the rats and mice, being torn to pieces by their powerful jaws.

In our own country they do little harm, except in houses, where they sometimes swarm to an unpleasant extent. In gardens, too, they are often unpleasantly numerous, but can be easily destroyed by pouring boiling water or naphtha into their tunnels. The RED ANT is remarkable for being an English example of the slave-making insects. These creatures invade the nests of the Brown Ant (Formica fuscus), carry off the pupæ, and hatch them in their own nests, where they labour with perfect cheerfulness, unacquainted, indeed, with the fact that they are in captivity. The well-known WOOD ANT (Formica rufa) is a very interesting insect, its large nest, composed externally of bits of hay, twigs, &c. being fully as wonderful as the combs of the bees or wasps. If one of these nests be broken into, the powerful acid smell of the formic acid secreted by the insects is strongly apparent; and if the hand be held within an inch or two of the insects, they will cover it with this acid, the first feeling being something like the contact of a nettle, but the slight prickling sensation going off in a few minutes. All their habits are very interesting, and well worth examination. Through lack of space, however, we must now leave the Ants and proceed to the next family.

WE now come to the Wasps, in which the wings are folded throughout their entire length when at rest. The left-hand figure in the illustration represents an Australian example of the Solitary Wasps, many of which are found in England. The curious nest of this insect is shown immediately above, suspended to a branch. The creature makes a separate nest for each egg, the material being clay well worked and the shape as is represented in the engraving. The nest is stocked with the larvæ of moths or butterflies

To this family belongs that wonderful Burrowing Wasp, which is a builder as well as an excavator, and which erects a tubular entrance, often more than an inch in height, with the fragments of sand which it has dug from the tunnel. It is thought, and probably with correctness, that the object of the insect in making this edifice is to deter its parasitic foes from entering so long and dark a channel. The tube is always curved. When the burrow is completed, the Wasp lays its egg in the tunnel, and packs in it a series of little green caterpillars, which serve as food for the larva. When the arrangements are completed, the Wasp takes down her tube, and employs the materials in closing the mouth of the tunnel. The technical name of this insect is Odynerus muraria. Another species is also known to possess this curious faculty.

The true Wasps, or Vespidæ, come next in order. These insects are gregarious in their habits, building nests in which a large, but uncertain number of young are reared.

The common Wasp makes its nest within the ground, sometimes taking advantage of the deserted hole of a rat or mouse, and sometimes working for itself. The substance of which the nest is made is a paper-like material, obtained by nibbling woody fibres from decayed trees or bark, and kneading it to a paste between the jaws. The general shape of the nest is globular, and the walls are of considerable thickness, in order to guard the cells from falling earth, a circular aperture being left, through which the inhabitants can enter cr leave their home.

The cells are hexagonal and laid tier above tier, each story being supported by little pillars, made of the same substance as the cells, and all the open ends being downwards, instead of laid horizontally, as is the case with the bees. It will thus be seen that, on

account of this arrangement, the nurse-wasps are enabled to get at the grubs as they lie, or rather hang, in their cells, with their heads downwards.

The grubs are fat, white, black-headed creatures, very well known to fishermen, who find them excellent bait after they have been baked, so as to render them sufficiently hard to remain on the hook. When they are about to enter the pupal state, they close the mouths of their cells with a silken cover, through which the black eyes are plainly visible, and there wait until they emerge in the perfect state. The grubs are fed with other insects, fruit, sugar, meat, or honey, the mingled mass being disgorged from the stomachs of the nurses and thus given to their charge.

There are separate cells for males, females, and neuters, the two former classes only being produced towards the end of autumn, so as as to keep up a supply for the succeeding year.

A very fine species of Wasp is shown in the engraving. This is a native of China, and another magnificent species may be seen at the upper part of the engraving on page 463.

Many species of Wasp inhabit England, the HORNET (Vespa Crabro) being the largest, and, indeed, being nearly equal in dimensions to any tropical species. This formidable insect makes a nest very similar to that of the wasp, but the cells are necessarily much larger. The nest is generally placed in hollow trees, but I have known a colony of these

insects to establish themselves in an outhouse, and to cause great annoyance before they could be expelled.

A very pretty nest is also found in this country, the work of the Vespa Britannica. It is suspended to branches, is nearly globular in shape, and extremely variable in size, some specimens being nearly a foot in diameter, while others are comparatively small. A very pretty specimen in my possession is about the size of a tennis ball. Some exotic species make nests, the covering or outer case whereof is thick and tough as pasteboard, and nearly white in colour. One of these nests, which is found in the Brazils, is popularly called the Dutchman's pipe, its shape somewhat resembling an exaggerated pipe-bowl the aperture for ingress and egress doing duty for the mouth, and the branch on which it is suspended taking the place of the stem. I believe that the insect which forms this curious structure belongs to the genus Chartergus. The central orifice penetrates through all the layers of combs.

The left-hand figure on the engraving at page 498 represents a fine insect, a native of Brazil, belonging to the Bembecida. Of this family we have no British examples. This species is in the habit of catching grasshoppers of considerable size, carrying them off, and stocking with these insects the habitation made for its young. A very fine species of Chrysis is parasitic upon it.

THERE are, perhaps, few insects so important to mankind as those which procure the sweet substance so well known by the name of honey. Nearly all the honey-making Hymenoptera are furnished with stings, and in many species the poison is fearfully intense. Some of these insects, such as the HIVE BEE, make waxen cells of mathematical accuracy, the larvæ being placed in separate cells, and fed by the neuters. In some cases. such as the common HUMBLE BEE, the cells are egg-shaped, each cell being either occupied by a larva, or filled with honey; while in some species the eggs are placed parasitically in the nests of other bees, so that the larvæ feed either upon the stores of food gathered for the involuntary host, or upon the body of the deluded insect itself.

The Hive Bee is the typical example of the honey-gatherers, but its general economy is too well known to need much description. Suffice it to say, that, as in the ants, the community consists of males, females, and neuters, but that in the Bees, all the members of the establishment are winged, and the wings are permanent. In each hive there is one fully-developed female, called the queen, several others in process of development, and intended to be the heads of future establishments, a limited number of males, and a vast band of neuters, i. e. undeveloped females. The males have no sting, but both the females and neuters are armed with this tiny, but formidable weapon. Since in civilizes countries the Hive Bees are kept in habitations of limited size, their numbers soon outgrow their home, and a large number accordingly quit the hive under the government of the old queen, the rule of the hive being taken up with one of the young queens which has burst from its cell in the meanwhile. A fresh colony is founded as soon as the Bees can meet with shelter, and their new residence is speedily filled with honey and young The cells of the Bee-comb are set back to back, and each comb hangs like a thick curtain from the top and sides of the hive, so that the cells lie nearly horizontally.

In gathering honey, the Bees lick the sweet juices from flowers, swallow them, and store them for the time in a membranous cup, popularly called the honey-bag. When this cup is filled, the Bee returns to the hive, and discharges the honey into cells, closing its mouth with wax when it is filled. The structure of the Bee-cell, its marvellous adaptation to the several purposes for which it is intended, its mathematic accuracy of construction. whereby the best amount of material is found to afford the greatest amount of space an i strength, are subjects too complicated to be here described, but may be found in many works which have been written upon the Hive Bee.

THE members of the genus NOMADA, a specimen of which may be seen in the righthand upper corner of the engraving on page 463, are very wasp-like in their general aspect, are not hairy, and are, indeed, often taken for small wasps by inexperienced observers. They are, however, true bees. Their habits are rather obscure, but they are thought to be parasitic insects.

The right-hand insect in the engraving is the CARPENTER BEE of Southern Africa, one of those curious insects which construct a series of cells in wood. After completing their burrow, which is open at each end, they close the bottom with a flooring of agglutinated sawdust, formed of the morsels bitten off during the operation of burrowing, lay an egg upon this floor, insert a quantity of " bee-bread," made of the pollen of flowers and their juices, and then cover the whole with a layer of the same substance that was used for the floor. Upon this is laid another egg, another supply of bee-bread is inserted, and a fresh layer of sawdust superimposed. Each layer is therefore the floor of one cell and the ceiling of another, and the insect makes on the average about ten or twelve of these cells.

AT the left hand of the engraving is shown one of the numerous HUMBLE BEES, a group of insects readily recognised by their thick hairy bodies and general shape. Their nests are placed underground, often in banks, and contain a variable number of cells, sometimes not more than twenty in number, and sometimes exceeding two, or even three, hundred. The cells are loosely connected together, and are of an oval shape, their texture being tougher and more paper-like than those of the hive bee. In these, as in the ordinary bees, there are the three kinds of inhabitants; but with the Humble Bees, both the females and neuters take part in the labours of the establishment, while the number of perfect females is comparatively large.

The honey made by these insects is peculiarly sweet and fragrant, but to many persons, myself included, is rather injurious, always causing a severe headache. Some of the Humble Bees (Bombus muscórum) employ moss in the construction of their nests, and pass it, fibre by fibre, through their legs, in a manner that reminds the observer of carding cotton. They are on that account popularly called CARDER BEES. Others, again (Bombus lapidarius), prefer to make their nests in heaps of stones, or similar localities, and these are the fiercest of their kind. Generally, the Humble Bees are quiet and inoffensive, even permitting their nest to be laid open and the cells extracted without offering to molest the invader. The ORANGE-TAILED HUMBLE BEE, however, is large and fierce; and possessing