II. _Orthroptera_, having the wings when at rest in _straight_ longitudinal folds, comprising such families as the earwigs, cockroaches, grasshoppers, and locusts. III. _Neuroptera_, nerve-winged, characterised by four naked, strongly reticulated organs of flight, as seen in dragon-flies, may-flies, and white ants. IV. _Hymenoptera_, _membrane_-winged, resembling the _Neuroptera_ in some respects, but with fewer reticulations, and their organs of flight when in use are hooked together along the margins, so as to expose a continuous surface. Another distinguishing character is the appendage at the tail, in the form of either a sting or an ovipositor. The chief representative families are the bees, wasps, gad-flies, ants, and ichneumons. V. _Lepidoptera_, having the wings covered with a _scale_-like powder, set like the tiles of a house. The butterflies and moths all belong to this order. VI. _Diptera_, or _two_-winged insects, embracing the gnats, "daddy-long-legs," blow-flies, and house-flies. Less important are the _Homoptera_, which have the wings of the _same consistence_ throughout, as the aphides or blight-insects. The _Heteroptera_, having the fore-wings coriaceous (or leathery) at the base and membranous towards the extremity. These comprise the bug tribe; while fleas belong to the _Aptera_, or _wingless_ insects. Insects pass through four stages during their lifetime: the _egg_, the _larva_, the _pupa_, and the _imago_ conditions. The honey-bee exists in each of these states. _The egg._--All the eggs of the community are laid by the queen. The cells in which they are deposited vary in size and in shape, according to whether queens, drones, or workers are to be developed in them. In length the eggs are about one-twelfth of an inch; in shape, oblong, but a little broader at the upper than at the lower end, and slightly curved; in colour they are white, with a bluish tinge. Their external coat is slightly glutinous when they are first laid, and thus they adhere to the bottom of the cell in which they are deposited. [Illustration: Fig. 1.--Egg's and Larva of Bees.]