Aculeata

Sub-order of Hymenoptera having retractile stings in the female sex, and also poison glands. The abdomen is always stalked; the antennæ of the male are thirteen jointed. and of the female, twelve-jointed. The larvæ are without anus or feet. The chief families are Formicidæ (ants), Fo or i a (digging-wasps), Vespid a (wasps), and Apide (bees) (q. v.). Aculeus. Sting of insects. It develops from a double pair of projections of the next to the last segment of the abdomen, and one pair from the antepenultimate segment. The last furnishes the piercing parts, the former the sheath.