HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 199 



thin roof of coarse wax for the purpose of keeping out 

 the wet. The entrance is in the lower part, and is ge- 

 nerally through a gallery or covered way, sometimes 

 more than a foot in length and half an inch in diameter, 

 by means of which the nest is more effectually concealed 

 from observation. On removing the coping of moss, the 

 interior presents to our view a very different scene from 

 that witnessed in a bee-hive. Instead of numerous ver- 

 tical combs of wax, we see merely a few irregular hori- 

 zontal combs placed one above the other, the uppermost 

 resting upon the more elevated parts of the lower, and 

 connected together by small pillars of wax. Each of 

 these combs consists of several groups of pale-yellow 

 oval bodies of three different sizes, those in the middle 

 being the largest, closely joined to each other, and eacli 

 group connected with those next it by slight joinings of 

 wax. These oval bodies are not, as you might suppose, 

 the work of the old bees, but the silken cocoons spun by 

 the young larvae. Some are closed at the upper extre- 

 mity ; others, which chiefly occupy the lower combs, 

 have this part open. The former are those which yet 

 include their immature tenants ; the latter are the empty 

 cases from which the young bees have escaped. On the 

 surface of the upper comb are seen several masses of wax 

 of a flattened spheroidal shape, and of very various di- 

 mensions : some above an inch and others not a quarter 

 of an inch in diameter: which on being opened are found 

 to include a number of larva3 surrounded with a supply 

 of pollen moistened with honey. These, which are the 

 true cells, are chiefly the work of the female, which after 

 depositing her eggs in them furnishes them with a store 

 of pollen and honey ; and, when this is consumed, sup- 

 2 K 2 



