"Koempfer, speaking of the White Ants of Japan, gives a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which these miners proceed. Upon rising one morning he observed that one of their galleries of the thickness of his little finger had been formed across his table; and upon a further examination he found that they had bored a passage of that thickness up one foot of the table, formed a gallery across it, and then pierced down another foot into the floor; all this was done in the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest and his rising." Most of this order are armed with some weapon of defence. The Bee and Wasp have each a most formidable sting, with which they are able to inflict a wound fatal to most insects. The Ants have a peculiar secretion, consisting of formic acid, which they eject with great force, and which has a very disagreeable smell. The eggs of Ants when hatched produce a small grub, which spins itself a sort of cocoon, and in this state it so much resembles a grain of corn, that it has been mistaken for it; this error has given rise to the supposition that Ants store up corn for winter, whereas they never eat corn, but the care they take of these larvæ, removing them from place to place, taking them up in their mandibles and running along with them, has been mistaken for the act of storing away grains of corn. 5. STREPSIPTERA (Twisted-winged). This order includes but a few species; Dr. Baird in his Cyclopædia, gives the following account of them:-- "Certain insects were discovered by Kirby, living parasitic in the abdomen of some Andrenæ, which at that time were nondescript, and could not be referred to any existing order. They were afterwards placed in an order by themselves, which he called Strepsiptera. The larvæ live in the bodies of Bees, Wasps &c., and the males only undergo a perfect metamorphosis; the females, even when adult, have neither legs, wings, nor eyes, but resemble larvæ, and continue to live parasitic in the bodies of the Hymenopterous insects within which they were born. The characters are thus taken from the male and consist chiefly in the structure of the wings. The anterior pair are quite rudimentary, being transformed into a pair of short, slender, contorted appendages resembling narrow balancers or halters. The posterior pair are large and membraneous, their nervures are only longitudinal, so that they are able to fold them like a fan. They have large globular eyes, with the facets few, but of comparatively large size." [Illustration: FIG. 26.--STYLOPS ANDRENÆ.] About ten or twelve species are known, forming a small family, "Stylopidæ." The genus Stylops may be taken as the type, and contain such species as have the tarsi with four points and the antennæ with six." 6. LEPIDOPTERA (Scaly-winged). [Illustration: FIG. 27.--SCALES FROM MOTH'S WING (Magnified).]