FAMILIiE. {Apis. **. c. 2. 5.) 179 



He informs us, that the nests of these little bees 

 are constructed of a kind of cement or mortar, in 

 the following manner. " The female (for the 

 males, like the drones of the hive bee, do no work, 

 and these insects have only two sexes) undertakes 

 the whole labour of the building, and is, at the 

 same time, both architect and mason. Her first 

 step is to fix upon an angle, sheltered by any pro- 

 jection, on the south side of a stone wall. Some- 

 times she contents herself with a more exposed 

 part of the surface, where the stone happens to be 

 uneven and lit for her purpose. Having chosen a 

 spot proper to receive the foundations of the future 

 mansion of her offspring, her next care is to pro- 

 vide materials. As her house is to be built entirely 

 of a kind of mortar, the basis of which, as it is of 

 ours, must be sand ; she is very curious in her 

 choice of it, selecting it, grain by grain, from such 

 as contains some mixture of earth. To shorten 

 her labour, before she transports it for use, by 

 means of a kind of saliva which is very viscid, she 

 glues as many grains as she can carry into a little 

 mass, about the size of small shot. Taking this 

 up with her maxillas, she conveys it to the spot she 

 has fixed upon for the scite of her castle. A cir- 

 cular plane, composed of many of these little 

 masses, forms the basis on which it is to be erect- 

 ed ; it contains from three to eight cells (-^), which 

 are similar to each crthcr in their form, and equal 

 ik) GeofFroy says twelve or fifteen. , 



N 2 i» 



