Are there any more vivid memories of childhood than those of the berry picking and swimming expeditions that were turned into swift, ragged retreats by hornets, bumble-bees and yellow-jackets? These "ladies"-for only the females have stings-have driven their bayonets home into many a tan-coated calf, and turned vacation days into days of pain and anger. And it is little wonder that the recipients of their attention have seldom ventured, either as children or adults, to pursue the interesting study of the why and wherefore of their stinging ways, but rather to avoid them most religiously. The loss has not been entirely to the attacking contingents, for the social stinging Hymenoptera, as are other creatures endowed with venomous stings, are far more fascinating than dangerous.

Not all the entertainment they provide is contained in their hot tails. Of species endowed with venomous stings-which, to be precise, are connected with poison-secreting glands, are separate from teeth or mandibles and are located at the posterior end of the body-the arthropods have by far the greater number. Of them the aculeate Hymenoptera, or ants, bees and wasps, being the sole insects distinctly so armed, are exceedingly more plentiful and better known. The bees and wasps, both social and solitary, are the most important sisters in the stinging sorority. Certain ants possess protective stings, though, at least in North America, they are far from seriously venomous, even when numerously cooperative.

Because he tackles every kind and condition it is the enthusiastic collector of the Hymenoptera who gathers very definite and comparative knowledge of insect stings. However expert he may be in poison-bottling his specimens from flowers or fruit, he can be sure to receive an extended thrust of an abdomen now and then, and if he is a student of the social habits and nest-building he runs a very large chance of maddening those active, four-winged ladies who are jealous of their rights. The solitary forms are never inclined to resent minor interference. The relative power of the venom of stings is largely a matter of the physical condition of the victim and of individual susceptibility, much as between those who are affected by poison ivy and those who are not. The food of the creatures may also exert a decided influence.

A number of years ago, in order to test the effect of bee sting on the tendency to neuritis, thought by some physicians to be a cure, a curious-minded person I know caught a honey-bee on summer woodland aster and with forceps compelled it to sting him on the leg. The result, oddly enough, for he had often been stung by honeybees without effects worth mentioning, was almost as serious as would have been the bite of a small copperhead or a prairie rattler. He was laid up with a badly swollen and very painful limb for three days.