Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/593

577 H Y M H Y M 577 Many, like Andrena, dig in light soils a burrow, consisting of a ] narrow passage going down some inches, and having at each side of it at intervals cells in which the food is stored. Wood is used by others to form somewhat similar cells, which may be lined with pieces of leaves or flowers. The stems of brambles are utilized by a large number of species of bees and fossorial Hymenoptera. Osmia uses empty shells for its habitation. Then others build up nests. Chalicodoma and other bees, with many wasps, construct cells by cementing together bits of mud and clay. Social wasps form their large nests of paper made of masticated wood ; humble bees and the hive bee do so by a secretion called wax. Some ants build up from the ground, of leaves, &c. , nests shaped like a hay-stack, which in size j they may almost equal. An Indian species builds, at the ends of brandies of trees, large nests of dead and living leaves matted together with a white web. Finally, the thorns of Acacia are hollowed out by others to serve as a residence. The Acnhata may be divided into five families the Formic/idee, or ants, MutillidcK (commonly called &quot;solitary ants&quot;), Fossorcs (sand-wasps, &c.), Diploptcra, or true wasps, and Anthuphila, or bees. The ants are, as a rule, social insects, and their workers differ from those of wasps and bees in being always wingless. 1 What mor phologically more especially distinguishes ants from other aculeates is the structure of the abdomen, which at the base (on the peduncle or petiole) is provided either with a flattened plate-like projection or with two nodes. In the former case, there is, as in Formica, only a rudimentary sting, while in the latter there is an efficient one, as in Myrmica ; but there are exceptions to both rules. A few ants are solitary and parasitic in habits, and in this case the female is wingless. Closely allied to the ants are the Mutillidce (by some authors the two are placed in one group, Ifeterogena), which, how ever, differ from them in being solitary, in having neither a scale nor node, while the tibiae are spiued, and the tarsi ciliated. It is only the males which are winged, and they have the abdomen spined and curved at the apex. They are brightly coloured insects, and are very numerous in species. So far as is known they are parasites on humble bees. The group of Fossorcs is a very extensive one. Their habits are very interesting and varied even in the same genus. They are carnivorous, storing up (after having benumbed but not killed) caterpillars, beetles, flies, aphides, &c. , in cells formed or dug out of wood or of bramble stems, in the ground, or built up of mud or sand. Some build no nests, and store up no food for their young, but live, cuckoo fashion, on other Fossorcs or bees. In general structure the Diploptera do not differ essentially from the Fossorcs ; but they may be readily known from them by the wings being folded longitudinally in repose, while the eyes are reniform and reacli to or near to the base of the mandibles. They differ too from the Fossorcs in some of them being social, as is the case with Polisfcs and Vespa. In habits the solitary wasps agree more or less with the Fossorcs. While the above-mentioned tribes are carnivorous, the bees, on the other hand, -are entirely vegetable feeders, living on the pollen or nectar of flowers. As might be expected, we find with them certain peculiarities of structure in connexion with their habits. The great business of a bee is the storing up of food, for its own use or (and more especially) for that of its young. To do this to the best advantage certain parts of the body are adapted for the carry ing home of pollen. This is done more especially on the legs. The basal joint of the tarsus is, for this purpose, flattened and com pressed, and covered (at least on the inner side) with hair. This then, is a character which distinguishes them from all other aculeates. The least specialized bees carry home the pollen loose, but Apis mixes it into a paste in the field. To serve the same end the mouth parts are profoundly modified for the lapping of nectar. Many bees are parasites on other bees. These want the pollen collecting apparatus, and many of them have bright-coloured hair less bodies, as already remarked. &quot;HI- The earliest Hymenoptera known belong to the upper Oolitic formation ; but, as they are Apidce, it is certain that the order must have appeared much earlier in time than that. At the present day, representatives of the order are found in all parts of the world, even as far north as 78 to 83 N. lat., where Bombi and ichneumons were found by the naturalists attached to the Arctic expedition of 1875-76. Many genera in all the families have a very wide dis tribution, e.g., Ophion and Pimpla among the ichneumons, Ody- nerus with the wasps, Mcgachile with bees. Humble bees and saw-flies are characteristic of temperate, if not northern, latitudes; Mutilla of warm regions, although it also appears in arctic regions. Vespa is more limited in its range than the solitary wasps (Odynerus, &c.), being absent from Africa, Australia, and South America. Many individual species have a very extensive range. This has been brought about in some cases by the aid of man. In this way many pests have been carried over the globe, c. g., Nematas ribesii, the gooseberry grub, which is now spreading over the American gardens ; Erlocampa, aduinbrata, the slug worm of British fruit trees, has reached New Zealand ; while, among ants, the house ant of Madeira (Pheidole pusilla) is now cosmopolitan. Many species are common to the Paltearctic and Nearctic regions, e.g., Mcgacliile ccntuncularis, Vespa vulgaris, Hemichroa rufa. Others have a wider geographical range. The ant Solenopsis gcminata, for instance, is found in India, the Eastern Archipelago, South America, and the Hawaiian Islands. Hylotomapagana, again, occurs in the Southern States of America, and all over Europe, and extends to India and Japan. There being no complete list of Hymenoptera, it is not easy to give Number the number of described species, but probably it is not much over of 17,000. The actual number, however, must be very much greater ; species, probably it will be found to reach 70,000 or 80,000 ; for in those countries where anything like the same attention has been paid to them as to beetles they are nearly as numerous ; and in no country have they received so much attention as Colcoptcra. As regards the number of British species, there are recorded in the catalogues published by the Entomological Society of London, in 1871-2, 378 Aculcata, 1654 Ichneumonidce and Braconidce, and 325 Oxyura ; while 325 saw-flies were catalogued in 1878 in all about 2700. Besides these there are about 150 Cynipidce, and upwards of 1200 Chalcididce have been described by Francis Walker ; but that num ber may safely be reduced to 600 or 700. Bibliography. I. SYSTEMATIC. Wcstwood, An Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, 1840; Lepelletier de Saint Favgeau and Brulle, Ilistoire Naturelle del Insectes Hyme nopteres, 1840; Curtis, British Entomology, Stephens, Illustrations of British Entomology, vol. vii. and Supplement, 1835 ; Fabricius, Kystema Piezatorum, 1804; Costa, Fauna del regno di Napoli, 18(il ; Dalilbom, Hymenoptera Europcea prcecipue borealia, 1843-1845 ; C. G. Thomson, Ifi/meno- piera Scandinavia, 1872 et seq.; Jurine, Aouvelle nietlwde de classer les Hyme no pteres, 1807; Kirby, Monoyraphia apinn Anglice, 1802; Mayr, Die Europiiische Formiciden. 1801 ; Shuckard, Essay on the Indigenous Fossorial Hymenoptera, 1837; Smith, Catalogues of Hijmntopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum, 1853 et seq.; Saussuve, Alonotjraphie des Gttepes sociales, 1853. and Man. des Guepes solitaires, 1852 ; Kirclmer, Caialogus Hymen. Europce, 1867; Fb rster, Hymenopterologische Studien, 1856 ; Gravenhorst, Ichneumons! ogia Europcea, 1829; Haliday, &quot;An Essay on the Classification of the Parasitic Hymenoptera of Great Britain,&quot; in Entomol. Slag., 1833 et seq.; Hartig. Die Familitn der Blattwes- pen und Holzwespen, 1837 ; Holmgren, Monoyraphia Tryphonidnm Suecicr, 1856 ; Id., Mon. Ophionidum Suecia;, 1861; Id., Man. 1 impliarum Siiec.ia, I860; Id., Ichneum. Suecica, 1871 ; King, Mongr. Siricum Germanite, 1803; &quot; iJie Blattwes- pen nach iliren Gattungen, &c.,&quot; in Mag. der Gesellsrhaft Xaturf. Freunde zu Berlin, 1807 ; Ratzburg, Die Ichneumonen der Forstinsectcn, 1844-1852; Wesmael, Monographic des Bracotrides de Belgiqiie. See also many papers by WestWOOd and Smith in Transactions of Linnean and Entomological Societies of London; by Mayr and Giraud, on Chalcididce and Cynipidce, in Verh. d. zool.-bot. Vereins in ^ ien ; by Foistor in the same Transactions and in Verh. des naturhift. Vereins d. Preussischen Rheinlande u. Wes/phalens ; by Hartig, on Cynipidce in Germar s Zeit. f. Ent.; as well as papers by various authors in the Stettiner Entom. Zeitung, the Berliner Ent. Zeitschrift. the Annales de la Socie te Entom. de France, &c. U. ANATOMICAL. Dufour, Recherches snr I anatomie des Hyme nopteres, &c., Paris, 1841; Ganin, &quot; Ueber der Embryonalhlille der Hymen, u. Lepidopt.&quot; Mem. de VAcad. de St Petersbourg, 1869; Btitschli, &quot;Zur Entwickelungsgescliiehte der Biene,&quot; Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., xx.; Ganin, &quot; Beitriige zurErkenntniss der Entwick. der Insekten,&quot; Zeitschr. iciss. Zool., 1869 ; Krai-pi-lin, &quot; Untersuch. iiher d. Bau, &.&amp;lt;., des Staehels der bienonartigen Thiere,&quot; Zeitschr. wigs. Zool., 1873; Lacaze- Puthiers, &quot; Me moire sur 1 appareil genital femelle des Hyme nop.,&quot; An. des Sc. Nat., 1849; Newport, &quot;.Prize Es.-my on Athalia Spinarum,&quot; and various Memoirs on C/talctdidce, &c., in Phil. Trans., 1852-53; Wolff, Das Riechorgan d. Biene u. Besc/ir. d. P.etpirationswerket d. Iltiinenop., 1875 ; Siebold, Wahre Parthenogenesis b. Schmetterlingen u. ISienen, 1856 ; Beitr. z. Parthenogenesii d. Arlhropoden, 1871. (P. CA.) HYMNS 1. Classical ll THE word &quot;hymn&quot; (fyvos) was employed by the ancient Greeks to signify a song or poem composed in honour of gods, heroes, or famous men, or to be recited on some joyful, mournful, or solemn occasion. Polymnia was the name of their lyric muse. Homer makes Alcinous entertain Odysseus with a &quot;hymn&quot; of the minstrel Demo- docus, on the capture of Troy by the wooden horse. The Works and Days of Hesiod begins with an invocation to the 1 The wings, however, may be distinguished in the pupae of the neuters, thus showing clearly that they have been lost through disuse. Muses to address hymns to Zeus, and in his TJieogonia he speaks of them as singing or inspiring &quot;hymns &quot; to all the divinities, and of the bard as &quot;their servant, hymning the glories of men of old, and of the gods of Olympus.&quot; Pindar calls by this name odes, like his own, in praise of con querors at the public games of Greece. The Athenian dramatists (Euripides most frequently) use the word and its connate verbs in a similar manner; they also describe by them metrical oracles and apophthegms, martial, festal, and hymemeal songs, dirges, and lamentations or incanta tions of woe. XII. - 73