AND ALLIES.
AND HY'MENOPHYL'LUM(Xeo-Lat.. non. p1., from Gk. i'pilv, hymen, membrane + i'?.7.ov, plcyllen, leaf). A genus of ferns, comprising the film II ins and lace found growing parasit ically on roots of trees and in other like situa tions, and characterized by their delicate mem Lranaceous leaves with cup-shaped spore-eases situated at the ends of tire veins, and their creep ing rootstoeks. The family containing them is one of the most primitive of tire modern ferns, and also one of the earliest to appear in the geological records; for fossil leaves, called liy mcnopltyl lit as. vary similar to those of tlrc rood ern living genus Ilymenoplhyllum, are found in tI e Devonian rocks of Europe. It is also k nran in the coal-measure flora of Carhoniferous time, and in the Eoeene flora. The fossil fern genus is very similar in form to Iivurono phyllites, and can with dilliculty be distinguished from the latter. See FERN.
(Lat. non. 1)1., from Gk. ipevor, repot, hyaceopteros, membrane-winged. from idly, fhynun, membrane + rrcpGv, plcron, tiring). An order of insects, containing the ants, bees, wasps, icluneunnon-tlies, saw-flies, gall-flies, and related insects, elsewhere described under their names. I'he order includes a very great number of species, estimated at about one-fourth of the whole class, of which some, as ants and bees, are sine daily interesting and impor tant. They have the mouth furnished with man dibles for cutting and but tire other parts of the mouth are adapted for suction, and are generally narrow and elongated, often united into a kind of proboscis. as in bees. (Sec BEE.) The antennae are generally slender, but often exhibit differences in the sexes of the same spe cies. The wings are four in number, the first pair larger than the second, the wings of the same side united in flight by little hooks. The wings, when at rest, are laid over one another horizontally over the body. The wings are en tirely membranous, not reticulated as in the \europtera, but with comparatively few ncr vnres, the arrangement of which is so constant in tire whole order that particular names have been given to therm and to the space between them, and their diversities have been made rise of in classification. The livings are wanting iu the imperfectly developed females (`neuters') of some. Besides the ordinary eyes, all the Ily menoptcra have three small, simple eyes (ocelli), or the top of the head. The abdomen is generally united to the thorax by a slender Icdi eel . The abdomen of tire females is generally furnished with an organ capable of being protruded. but
for purposes in dill'erent sections of the order, it being in some of the groups an o•i positor. or borer. ;11(1 in others a sting.
The llynrenopf era in their perfect state gener ally feed on honey. but some of t em prey on other insects, which are the food of the larvae 01 a greater number; while tiro lama of sonic feed on various vegetable substances. Tire meta morphoses of the insects of this order are per fect: the larva? are generally—al hougb not in all the families—destitute of feet: tine pupa' take mo food. The 1Iynrcuoptcra are remarkable for the dilatation of the irachcs or air-tnbes into vesicles, and the genera I perfection of the respi ratory system. The instincts and ewcn apparent intelligence displayed by sonic of theri—partXr larly the social kinds, vhielr live in comnurnitics —have excited admiration from tine earliest times. See INsEO'r, paragraph , oeiai Insects.
FossIL These appear in the :llesozoic formations in small numbers. Only about a dozen species are known, mainly from the Jurassic- limestones of Solenhofen. Bavaria. The oldest hymenopterans a re ancestral to the modern ants. In the Tertiary deposits are found representatives of all the important families in forms very close to the modern species. In America the best examples are found at Floris sant in Colorado, and in Europe the fresh-water shales of Aix, (Ening•n, and Iladoboj, and hest of all. the amber of the Baltic Provinces. are noted loenlities. Consult Scudder. "Systematic Review of Our Present. Knowledge of Insects," in United Motes Geological Surrey Bulletin, No. 31 (Washington, 18861.
CLAssiricAriox. The order Hymenoptera is divided into two suborders, each containing sev eral as follows: Suborder Ileterophago.—Saiperfamilies: Apoi den. true bees: Iplieeohlea. solitary wasps; Proc totrypoidea. proetotrypoid parasites; Vespoidea, Forinicoblea. ants; Ichneinnonoi dea. ielineumon-flies; C'ynipoidea, gall-flies; Choi eidoidea.
Suborder Phytophaga.—Snperfamilivq: Siri coidea, horntails; Tenthredinoidea. saw-flies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Cresson, Catalogue and SynopBibliography. Cresson, Catalogue and Synop- sis of the .Vorth merieon Hymenoptera (Phila delphia, 1887) : Ashmead. Super(amilies in the Hymenoptera (New York, 1Si)9) ; Ashinead. The Habits of the Hymenoptera (Cambridge, 1S93): Howard. The Insect Hook (New York, 19011 Sharp. ("a/abridge Natural Ilistory, vol. v. (Lon don, 1895).