AFFECTION FOR THE YOUNG. 519 



neither too loose nor too firm, and feel astonished at the apparent 

 toil to which she must so repeatedly subject herself. But all the 

 allied genera are subjected to the same. Pompilus and Pepsis proceed 

 in the same way. Pelop&us constructs sinuous passages in old timber ; 

 Trypoxylon and Crabro seek such holes in walls and palings, and into 

 which they convey the larvae they have seized, and where also they lay 

 their eggs. Cerceris and Philanthus likewise dig holes in the ground, 

 but they select a loose soil, whence they are found most frequently in 

 sandy situations. Philanthus apivorus is notorious as a dangerous 

 enemy to bees, as it only makes use of the honey bee as food for its 

 larva, and which it seizes wherever it finds them *. 



Many wasps and bees have similar habits. The majority, however, 

 excavate themselves the holes in which they deposit their eggs, 

 and which they line with peculiar substances, either made by them- 

 selves or obtained elsewhere. But they are nevertheless distinguished 

 from the former by their not in general supplying their larvae with 

 other insects or their larvae t, but either with the pollen or the nectar of 

 flowers, either in its raw state or previously prepared by them. Among 

 the wasps this custom is found in the genera Odynerus, Eumenes, 

 Pterockeilus, &c. They construct separate dwellings for their larvae 

 in clay walls or clay banks, and sometimes even form a tubular entrance 

 to it, still further to prevent the intrusion of unwelcome guests. T.he 

 egg is then deposited in the cavity, and provided with a lump of pollen 

 intermixed with honey. Among the bees, the whole group of Andrence 

 form such nests, yet not in walls, but perpendicularly in the firm earth. 

 The depth of these shafts, which generally descend in a direct line, is 

 not trifling, it frequently exceeding a foot ; at the end of the shaft lies 

 the egg, or larva, embedded, as it were, in a quantity of pollen and 

 honey. Many true bees construct them similarly, but the dwellings 

 of their larvae are generally more artificially formed. Thus the Mega- 

 chiles envelope both egg and pollen in the leaves of plants, which they 

 cut off in pieces, and have gradually wrought together ; the Anthidia 

 furnish their entire cells with the woolly clothing of many plants, for 

 instance, of the several species of Stachys. They thus form in the 



* See a paper of mine upon this subject in the first part of the Trans, of the Entoui. 

 Society of London. TR. 



+ According to Miiller's observations (Germar's Mag. vol. iii. p. 61.), the hornet 

 supplies its young with the bodies of bees, both neuters and drones, as well as with the 

 honey of ilo\vers. 



