296 



ZOOLOGY 



Various 

 kinds of 

 nests 



or egg layer of more primitive Hymenoptera, and hence 

 on morphological grounds we could hardly expect to 

 find it in males. 



3. The nests of bees 

 are very diverse, according 

 to the species. Very many 

 burrow in the ground, but 

 others nest under or on 

 rocks, on trees, or in stems 

 of plants. A group of very 

 large bees (Xylocopa) works 

 in wood, and has thus 

 earned the name "carpen- 

 ter bees." The pretty 

 spotted bees called Dian- 

 thidium make nests of 

 resin and pebbles ; but 

 their relatives, the species 

 of Anthidium, collect woolly material from the stems 

 of plants. The leaf-cutting bees (Megachile), found 

 in almost every country in the world, cut semicir- 

 cular pieces of leaves with their mandibles, and use 

 these to line their cells. Frequently they use petals 

 for the same purpose, though certainly not for orna- 

 ment, as the young are reared in total darkness. The 

 Honeybees social bees, including the humblebees x and honey- 

 humbiebees bees, have special wax-producing organs on the abdo- 

 men, and hence are able to make the cells in which 

 their young are reared, without recourse to the support 

 afforded by the walls of a tunnel. The comb of the 

 humblebee is a complex structure, with receptacles 

 for the larvae (young), and others for honey and pollen. 

 It is, however, a roughly and loosely constructed affair 



1 Hummel in German; "bumblebee" is a corruption. 



From Brehm's " Tliierleben " 

 FIG. 106. A wood-boring or carpenter 

 bee (Xylocopa), with its nest. The 

 latter is exposed by splitting open the 

 timber in which it was constructed. 



