4fi'4i HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



upon its edge so that the margin passes between her legs. 

 With her strong mandibles she cuts without intermis- 

 sion in a curve line so as to detach a triangular portion. 

 When this hangs by the last fibre, lest its weight should 

 carry her to the ground, she balances her little wings for 

 flight, and the very moment it parts from the leaf flies 

 off" with it in triumph ; the detached portion remaining 

 bent between her legs in a direction perpendicular to 

 her body. Thus without rule or compasses do these 

 diminutive creatures mete out the materials of their work 

 into portions of an ellipse, into ovals or circles, accu- 

 rately accommodating the dimensions of the several pieces 

 of each figure to each other. Wliat other architect could 

 carry impressed upon the tablet of his memory the en- 

 tire idea of the edifice which he has to erect, and, desti- 

 tute of square or plumb-line, cut out his materials in 

 their exact dimensions without making a single mistake? 

 Yet this is what our little bee invariably does. So far 

 are human art and reason excelled by the teaching of 

 the Almighty ^. 



Other insects besides bees construct habitations of dif* 

 ferent kinds for their young, as various species of bur- 

 rowing wasps (Fossores), Geotrupes, &c., which deposit 

 their eggs in cylindrical excavations that become the 

 abode of the future larvae. In the procedures of most 

 of these, nothing worth particularizing occurs ; but one 

 species called by Reaumur the mason-wasp, {Odi/neincs 

 muraria,) referred to in a former letter, works upon so 

 singular a plan, that it would be improper to pass it over 

 in silence, especially as these nests may be found in this 

 country in most sandy banks exposed to the sun. I'his 



' Reaum. vi. 971-24. Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 157. Apis. **. c. 2. «. 



