if wasps, instead of being the subject, seem sometimes the occasion of the discussion; I can only say that on such terms alone could I have written these pages. Only as an amusement, as each topic came freshly suggested by Nature at a leisure time, could the labour have ever been undertaken, and the idea persistently carried out. I apprehend, however, no hard criticism to tell me that this book, with all its faults, to which I am keenly alive, should never have been written at all. If I have added anything to our common stock of knowledge, I shall be held excused for having told my story in my own way. And further, if, in so doing, I shall have given as much pleasure to others as I have myself received from such like books, my present contribution to Natural History will have fully answered its purpose. BRIGHTON, January, 1868. Hymenoptera, general characters and divisions of Wasps, how distinguished from other allied insects Divided into SOLITARY and SOCIAL SOLITARY group, represented in Britain by Odyneri : SOCIAL group, represented in Britain by Vespa : Lesser varieties of form, size, and colour Perfect adaptation is perfection of insect structure.. Form of the eyes in the Social and Solitary Groups Their structure and functions Labium, or lower lip Its mentum, palpi, and ligula.. Maxilla, or lower jaws Basilar portim, palpi, galea, and cardo Sense of smell, its probable seat Tegumentary skeleton of abdomen, its development And mode of construction Muscles, general arrangement of RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: Physiological peculiarities of Spiracles, abdominal, their structure in wasps.. crop and oesophagus, their structure and function Structure of the alimentary canal in general |