Carpenter Bees* 



41 



up entirely, as the termites do, or by piercing it with holes and tunnels to admit 

 air and moisture which soften the interior and make it available for workers witli 

 less powerful jaws. It is, of course, very annoying to man to find that his fence 

 and gate-posts, his garden stakes, and even the rafters and floors of his house, 

 are regarded as so much of nature's waste which must be broken up and scattered. 

 If he wishes it to be respected as his private property let him put his mark upon 

 it by painting its surfaces, dipping it in creosote, or coating it with some other 

 substance objectionable to Insects. 



Having obtained a post suitable for her purpose, the carpenter bee sets about 

 her work by cutting with her jaws an oblique tunnel about half an inch in diameter. 

 Before this has extended far into the wood, she alters the direction of further 

 excavation, and makes her boring run straight downwards. As she gnaws the 

 wood it is reduced to the condition of sawdust, and all this has to be carried out 

 of the hole or her further efforts 

 would be brought to a stand- 

 still. But instead of scattering 

 the excavated material as some 

 of the miners in sand and earth 

 do, she keeps it all together in 

 a little heap to be available for 

 use later on. She cuts and 

 gnaws awav until her tube is a 

 foot or fifteen inches deep, and 

 of equal width throughout its 

 length. At the bottom she 

 gives it a turn again to the 

 exterior of the post. Ilavnig 

 performed this great work she 

 proceeds to what by comparison 

 may be termed cabinet work, 

 the finer and more intricate section of the carpenter's art. Her task ir^ 

 to di\-i(le this deep shaft into about a do/.en chambers, eacli about an 

 mch HI depth, each designed for the reception of a single egg and a sutficienc\- 

 of food for the full devclojunent of the bee-grub that is to hatch out. This 

 food takes the form, usual among these solitary bees, of mixed pollen and 

 honey. Having made such a de})()sU at the bottom of her burrow, she has 

 r(!Course to her heap of sawdust. Taking a little of this material, she mixes it with 

 a salivary secretion and forms it into a ring standing out from the wall of her 

 shaft about three-quarters of an inch Irom the bottom. \\'hen this is set firm 

 she constructs anotlicr ring within the circumference of the first, and so on until 

 she has fillc-d all the space across, which gi\x's her a solid floor about an eighth of 

 an inch thick, marking off her lowest cell. I'pon this she la\-s another egg, piles 

 up another heap of pro\-isions. makes a second floor, and repeats these operations 

 until there are about a dozen separate cells one above another from the base to the 

 summit of her shaft, each whh its egg and food-supply. If the thickness of the 



Photo bys 



The Teredo Carpenter Bee. 



[£. sup, I'.L.S. 



The photo is that of .1 West Indian species, which is shown of the natural size. 

 'Ilic bee is much lilve ?. big humble-bee, but coloured black and blue. 



