THE ODVNEKI. 229 



beyond description. The work was constantly going on, and old 

 and young individuals were occupied cither in just commencing 

 to hollow out the soil or in closing up and finishing their lalwurs. 

 In some spots the insects were working hard at victualling their 

 cells, and had completed a curious gallery which projected in front 

 of the soil for more than an inch, like a tube. This tube was slightly 

 curved, and was made up of little flat pieces or cylindrical morsels 

 of earth placed in circles one over and in front of the others ; 

 small spaces being left in the walls of the tube, which gave it a 

 lace-like look, but without admitting the rain. These vestibules 

 arc excessively fragile, and fall to pieces when they are touched, 

 but the insects crawl into them without doing any damage. These 

 singular .entrances to the galleries and cells last as long as the 

 vicUialling goes on, but when everything is finished inside, and 

 the eggs are laid, the Odyncrns breaks up its fragile vestibule and 

 thus hides the entrance to its nest most perfectly. 



We broke away the earth which formed the bank here and 

 there, and exposed several cells which were just below the soil, 

 and many of them were more or less perfect. In one place a 

 o-allery was noticed to form the entry of two, three, or four cells, 

 and in another of only one cell ; but all the little chambers were 

 provisioned with the same sort of insect, namely, the green larva 

 of a weevil {Phytonus variabilis), and there were fifteen or sixteen 

 of them in each cell. The larvae were intact in most of the cells, 

 but then only the c^z of the Odyncrns could be found ; while in 

 others the provisions had been partly consumed, for the larva had 

 been hatched, and had increased in size at the expense of its 

 victims. The shape of the larva is short and rather oblong. 



In the engraving some of the vestibular tubes will be noticed 

 on the right hand, and an Odynerns will be seen crawling into one ; 

 other perfect insects may be observed in different positions. On 

 the left hand there arc two cells exposed in section, and in each 

 there is a larva with a crowd of its victims upon it. All the 

 Odyneri finish their particular duty by the end of June, and 

 die; and such a bank as we have described presents no external 

 traces of the wonderful insect work that has gone on within ; but 

 inside the larva: are living, eating, and growing, down in the dark 

 and far away from danger. When they have consumed all their 



