Crossword clues for hymenoptera
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hymenoptera \Hy`me*nop"te*ra\, n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. ? membrane-winged; ? skin, membrane + ? wing.] (Zo["o]l.) An extensive order of insects, including the bees, ants, ichneumons, sawflies, etc.
Note: They have four membranous wings, with few reticulations, and usually with a thickened, dark spot on the front edge of the anterior wings. In most of the species, the tongue, or lingua, is converted into an organ for sucking honey, or other liquid food, and the mandibles are adapted for biting or cutting. In one large division ( Aculeata), including the bees, wasps, and ants, the females and workers usually have a sting, which is only a modified ovipositor.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
order of insects that includes ants, wasps, and bees, 1773, coined in Modern Latin 1748 by Linnæus from Greek hymen (genitive hymenos) "membrane" (see hymen) + pteron "wing" (see pterodactyl). Related: Hymenopterous.
WordNet
n. insects having two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor specialized for stinging or piercing [syn: hymenopterous insect, hymenopteron, hymenopter]
[also: hymenoptera (pl)]
See hymenopteran
Wikipedia
' Hymenoptera' is the third-largest order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 species are recognized, with many more remaining to be described. The name refers to the wings of the insects, but the original derivation is ambiguous. All references agree that the derivation involves the Ancient Greek πτερόν (pteron) for wing. The Ancient Greek ὑμήν (hymen) for membrane provides a plausible etymology for the term because these insects have membranous wings. However, a key characteristic of this order is that the hind wings are connected to the fore wings by a series of hooks. Thus, another plausible etymology involves Hymen, the Ancient Greek god of marriage, as these insects have "married wings" in flight.
Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or otherwise inaccessible places. The ovipositor is often modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism (complete metamorphosis)—that is, they have a worm-like larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they mature.
Usage examples of "hymenoptera".
What really worried the public-relations man was the Kill-theBees Act, now before Congress, which would make beekeeping illegal and the extermination of hymenoptera a national policy.
Most of the insects, in all the foregoing cases, were Diptera, but with many minute Hymenoptera, including some ants, a few small Coleoptera, larvae, spiders, and even small moths.
These consisted chiefly of Diptera, with some Hymenoptera, Homoptera, Coleoptera, and a moth.
It dealt with a very singular fact concerning the manners of one of the hymenoptera, a wasp, a Cerceris, in whose nest Dufour had found small coleoptera of the genus Buprestis, which, under all the appearances of death, retained intact for an incredible time their sumptuous costume, gleaming with gold, copper, and emerald, while the tissues remained perfectly fresh.
In this marvellous study, which constitutes, with the history of the Cerceris, the finest masterpiece of experimental entomology, Fabre brilliantly establishes all the details of that curious law which in the Hymenoptera rules both the distribution and the succession of the sexes.
As he advanced in life, in fact, although he never forgot his rude natal countryside, he felt that new links were daily binding him more closely to those heaths and mountains on which his heart had been so often thrilled with the intense joy of discovery, and that it was indeed in this soil, to him so full of delight, amid its beautiful hymenoptera and scarabaei, that he would wish to be buried.
Callisians somewhat resembled Terran hymenoptera in shape, general coloration, and their ability to deliver a potent sting.
It is presumably no accident that true sociality, with worker sterility, seems to have evolved no fewer than eleven times independently in the Hymenoptera and only once in the whole of the rest of the animal kingdom, namely in the termites.