i8o 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



for some other purpose, which has not been 

 ascertained at present. Some of the species are 

 also known as dammar-bees from their extensive 

 use of resin for the construction of defensive out- 

 works to their nests. Thev abound in most 

 tropical countries. Each communit\' consists of an 

 enormous number of individuals, and their combs 

 contain great quantities of honev. In consequence, 

 they are much preyed upon by man, monkeys, and 

 other " sweet-toothed " animals. Instead, there- 

 fore, of building uncovered combs on trees like the 

 Indian honey-bees, or in holes of trees or banks 

 like some other honey-storers, the mosquito-bees 

 enclose their combs by building walls of clay or 

 resin. Bates has told us how, on the Amazons, 

 most of the species industriously gathered little 

 pellets of clay much in the same way as the\' 

 gathered pollen ; conveving it to their nests in 

 their pollen-baskets. They nest in tree-trunks or 

 holes in banks, but in either case thev build walls 

 of clay to completely shut in their combs, and keep 

 out intruders. That their city is worth sacking 

 may be gathered from Bates' statement that he 

 saw a nest opened which contained two quarts of 

 good honev. The largest species that he met with 

 in that region was half an inch long ; the smallest 

 not more than a twelfth of an inch. 



One species that is common in Jamaica had its 

 inoffensive character noted by the former Spanish 

 owners, who named it the angelito. Gosse tells us 

 that it makes its nest in trees, and a black species 

 of ant evinces a great desire to obtain admission in 

 order to tap the honey-jars — as big as pigeons' 

 eggs. But the entrance is narrow, and three bees 

 are kept on guard, who are sufficient to block the 

 wav. If a worker bee wishes to go out or come in, 

 the middle one of the three sentinels steps aside to 

 make way but immediately resumes her post when 

 the other has j^assed. 



An Australian species, known as karbi,^ is 

 about three-sixteenths of an incii long. It has 

 the rcmaikable construction;!! habit ot building its 

 comb in a s})iral form, and enclosing it within walls 

 of wax — probablv propolis -with an outer labyrinth 

 of passages formed of the same material. Honey and polKn are stored in special 



1 'I'rit'ona carbonaria. 





Entrance Tube to Nest of 

 Mosquito-Bee. 



To cxcliulo intruders soiiit' of these- bees constniet 

 entrance tubes, which are o-asily guarckd by 

 sentinels. This example, reduced from actual 

 size — which is about fourteen inches long — was 

 made by a species in the Straits Settlements, and 

 is composed of resin gathered from trees. 



