The Hymenoptera are those insects which have four membraneous wings. The Bees (Apidæ, fig. 16), Wasps (Vespidæ), the Ants (Formicidæ), and the Ichneumon Flies (Ichneumonidæ), are the chief tribes of this order. The Bees, Wasps, and Ants are celebrated for forming societies, more perfectly arranged and governed than in any other creatures but man. It is curious that the most perfect instincts (such as approach so nearly to reason that they almost defy us to make a distinction) should have been given by the Creator to creatures so far removed from man in the scale of existence, and so little resembling him in any other particular. This is one of the stumbling-blocks in the way of those who wish to have it believed that all animals are progressive from certain types, which cannot be got over; if such were the case, man would be most nearly imitated by the Apes, and these again by those most nearly allied to them, and so on downwards, but here we find a government almost as perfect as that of the human species--an arrangement of work, a division of labour, buildings, storehouses, &c.--showing nearly all the social habits and feelings of man, in creatures who in form and size have no resemblance to him. Kirby and Spence, in describing the societies of insects, say:--"But when we consider the object of these societies, the preservation and multiplication of the species, and the means by which that object is attained (the united labours and co-operation of perhaps millions of individuals), it seems as if they were impelled by passions very similar to those main-springs of human associations which I have just enumerated. Desire appears to stimulate them, love to allure them, fear to alarm them. They want a habitation to reside in and food for their subsistence. Does not this look as if desire were the operating cause which induces them to unite their labours to construct the one and provide the other? Their nest contains a numerous family of helpless brood. Does not love here seem to urge them to exemplary and fond attention, and those unremitted and indefatigable exertions manifested by the whole community for the benefit of these dear objects? Is it not also evident by their general and singular attachment to their families, by their mutual caresses, by their feeding each other, by their sympathy with suffering individuals and endeavours to relieve them, by their readiness to help those that are in difficulty, and finally by their sports and assemblies for relaxation? That fear produces its influences upon them seems no less evident, when we see them agitated by the approach of enemies, endeavour to repel their attacks, and to construct works of defence. They appear to have besides a common language, for they possess the faculty, by significative gestures and sounds, of communicating their wants and ideas to each other."