28o INSECT LIFE 



XX 



powder, which readily absorbs the disgorged saliva, 

 and forms with the albuminous principles of this 

 liquid a kind of Roman cement, hardening quickly, — 

 something like what we obtain with quicklime and 

 white of egg. 



A beaten road, formed of calcareous boulders 

 crushed by passing wheels into a smooth surface 

 like paving stones, is the quarry whence Chalicodoma 

 sicula prefers to get mortar ; whether she builds on 

 a branch, in a hedge, or under the jutting roof of 

 some rural habitation, it is always from a neighbour- 

 ing path, or a road, or the highway, that she seeks 

 materials — indifferent to the constant passing of 

 beasts and travellers. You should see the active bee 

 at work when the road is dazzling white in the hot 

 sunshine. Between the neighbouring farm where 

 she is building and the road where the mortar is 

 prepared, there is the deep hum of the bees perpetually 

 crossing each other as they come and go. The air 

 seems traversed by constant trails of smoke, so rapid 

 and direct is their flight. Those who go carry away a 

 pellet of mortar as big as small shot ; those who come 

 settle on the hardest and driest spots. Their whole 

 body vibrates as they scratch with the tips of their 

 mandibles, and rake with their forefeet to extract 

 atoms of earth and grains of sand, which, being rolled 

 between their teeth, become moist with saliva and 

 unite. They work with such ardour that they will 

 let themselves be crushed under the foot of a 

 passer-by rather than move. Chalicodoma muraria, 

 however, which seeks solitude, far from human habi- 

 tation, is rarely seen on beaten paths ; perhaps they 

 are too distant from the places where she builds. If 



