several inches. They are distinguished by four thin, narrow, and strong wings,* having branching veins; they have four nippers, or jaws; the females are armed with a venomous sting, or with a piercer for boring or sawing the holes in which they deposit their eggs.

2. Hence the insects of this order may be divided into two groups, the Stingers and the Piercers. Most of them fly swiftly, and only during the daytime, and in fair weather; and they are able to keep on the wing much longer than most other insects. All of them pass through a complete change or metamorphosis in coming to maturity.

3. But few of the insects of this order are injurious to vegetation; while the great usefulness of some them, their persevering industry, the wonderful ingenuity with which they construct their dwellings, the prudence and economy with which they collect and store up their food, and their care and affection for their young, have always rendered them objects of man's peculiar admiration.

4. So important are the honey bees, that in all languages, ancient as well as modern, works have been written descriptive of them, and of the manner in which they should be treated; and the most exaltede and the purest minds that have ever drawn their moral illustrations from the Book of Nature, have singled out these little creatures as furnishing the most convincing evidence of the design and handiwork of a God.

5. Wasps are of several kinds, and they are scarcely less interesting in their habits than bees. The gall-wasps, or gall-flies, which have a piercer as thin as a hair, use it to deposit their eggs in the soft parts of plants, and thereby cause bunches of seeming fruits, called galls, which contain their young.

6.

"Lo! at their fairy touch at once springs forth
A magic growth of seeming fruits and flowers,
Fair to the eye, and animate within

By more than vegetative life."

* Some of the an's have no wings. See Fourth Reader, p. 209.

Such are the "oak-balls," so common in our forests; the "warts" on the leaves of willows and poplars; the "green apples" on the bush honeysuckle, or azalea; the famous "Dead Sea apples;" and the valuable dyer's galls of commerce, of which our best inks are made.

7. If we cut open one of these green galls, we shall often find it filled with a brood of living insects, for whose safe keeping the fruit-like home was permitted to grow in this wonderful manner. But, behold! there are thieves and robbers who invade this peaceful dwelling! A brilliant ichneumon fly often detects the hapless dwellers in the gall-apple, pierces it, and deposits her own eggs in the very bodies of the young collected there, thus destroying the lives and usurpings the dwellings of the gall-fly's brood.

8. Included in this order are the mud-wasps, which build their houses of clay; the stump-wasp, which bores holes in old stumps and posts; the common wasp, and the hornet, which build their houses of

paper; the many species of bees, and those wonderful insects the common ants, whose habits and history. have already been referred to.* In this order are also found the saw-flies, or sawwasps, whose sawing tools are so curiously formed, and the numerous ichneumon flies, which deposit their

eggs in the living bodies of other insects, such as caterpillars and grasshoppers, on which their young feed.

[The vein-winged insects: how distinguished; their two groups; powers of flight; metamorphoses. Why they are objects of man's admiration. The honey-bees. Wasps, gall-flies, etc. Vegetable galls. Their inhabitants. Mud and stump wasps, hornete, ants, saw-flies, ichneumon flies, etc.]

*See Fourth Reader, p. 208-213.

1. THE Humble-bees, or Bumble-bees as they are often called, from their buzzing sound, are of several species; but, like the honey-bee, every nest of them has its large female or queen, its workers, which are scarcely half the size of the queen, and its drones or males, larger than the workers; but the drones assist in repairing damages done to their dwelling, and are by no means so lazy as the honey-bee drones. There are also a few small females found in every nest late in autumn, and these alone survive the winter, and become the founders and queens of new colonies in the coming spring.

2. One species of the humble bee makes its nests in holes which it burrows in the ground, and another in heaps of stones, or in little hillocks which it forms out of the dead grass in meadow-lands. What country lad has not enjoyed the cruel sport of breaking up a humble-bee's

nest and robbing it of its honey! When the humble-bees are irritated, they fearlessly attack, with stinging vengeance, the disturbers of their homes.

3. A singular anecdote is related by M. Huber, of some honey-bees who paid a visit to a nest of humble-bees that had been placed under a box not far from the hives of the former. It was a time of scarcity; and after the honeybees had eaten or carried away all the honey in the nest, some humble bees went out to collect provisions. On their return, the honey-bees thronged around them, licked them, and patted them in the most winning manner, and at length persuaded them to give up the honey which they had gathered! The humble-bees then flew away to collect a fresh supply. The honey bees did them no harm, and never once presented their stings. This same proceeding was continued for more than three weeks, the humble-bees going out daily to gather food for their starving neighbors!

4.

5.

THE HONEY-BEE.

The honey-bee observe:
She too an artiste is, and laughs at man,
Who calls on rules the sightly hexagon'

With truth to form; a cunning architect,

Who at the roof begins her golden work,

And builds without foundation. How she toils,
And still from bud to bud, from flower to flower,
Travels the livelong day.

Ye idle drones,
Who rather pilferh than your bread obtain
By honest means like these, behold and learn
How good, how fair, how honorable 'tis
To live by industry.

a SUR-VIVE', live through.

b BUR-ROWS, digs.

CIR'-RI-TA-TED, made angry.
d RE-LA'-TED, told.

ART'-IST, skillful workman.
HEX'-A-GON, a plane figure of six sides

[Humble-bees: species; kinds in a nest. the humble-bees and honey-bees.

The honey-bee an artist: forms of its cells. Industry of the bees. Moral.]

HURDIS.

and six angles. The honey-bee, guided by instinct, forms its honey-comb cells of this figure.

XRCH-I-TECT, builder; a planner of buildings.

PIL FER, steal; practice petty theft.

Their nests. Singular anecdote related of

The bees suspend their combs from above.

LESSON CIX.

FLIES, OR TWO-WINGED INSECTS.
[SEVENTH ORDER OF INSECTS: Diptera.]

AMERICAN TWO-WINGED INSECTS, natural size. 1. Stable-fly. 2. Corslet Laphria. 3. Large Bee-fly. 4 Swift Tachina. 5. Wasp-like Conopian. 6. Orange-belted Horse-fly. 7. Silky Asilus. S. Small Horse-fly. 9. Large Meat-fly. 10. Onion-fly. 11. Horse Botfly. [See page 312.]

1. THE insects of this order are those two-winged insects which are commonly called flies. They vary greatly in size; from the large ox-fly, to the little gnat so small that it can only be seen with a magnifying glass. The heads of these insects are large, and fastened to the thorax by a very slender neck; the eyes are large, and compound, or honey-combed, occupying the whole of the sides of the head. A few species have three additional small eyes.

2. Some of these insects, like the house-fly, have a soft sucking-tube, or proboscis; others, like the musquito, have a hard, pointed sucking-tube, formed of bristles sharper than the finest needle, while others have simply a mouth. The flying insects of this order have three pairs of feet,