The Sting Of The Long-Bodied Digger Wasp

There is a very considerable difference in the venomous strength or power of bee and wasp stings. The virulence may be governed somewhat, but not entirely, by the size of the insect. The little swift-flying, burrowing bees, Andrenidae, cause no greater hurt than the western agricultural ants. The very small sand-burrowing wasps, Oxybelidae, have such weak stings that not only can they hardly puncture one's finger, but when they do get through the thinner skin, the result is but a severe itching like that caused by a single pustule of poison ivy. These insects crush their fly victims with their jaws; their stings are evidently not powerful enough to put them to sleep. Quite different are the little yellow-jackets, which not only

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