11 LIFE-HISTORY OF ZOWBUS 35 
she commences to make the cup to receive them 
by collecting wax with her jaws, and depositing 
iter the- selected place in the form of a ring, 
enclosing a space 33; in. to + in. across, the size 
depending on the number of eggs to be laid. 
On this foundation she builds the wall to a height 
of about. 53, in., no wax being placed in the 
bottom of the cup. Att first the building is carried 
on intermittently and in a desultory manner, but 
an increasing amount of attention is paid to it, 
and the final touches are applied hurriedly. She 
gives the observer the impression that she is afraid 
the cell will not be finished before she has to com- 
mence laying. Suddenly she leaves off work, and, 
turning round, places the tip of her abdomen into 
the cup, which she clasps with her hind feet. In 
this position she remains for three or four minutes, 
her sting appearing through the wall of the cell 
every time an egg is laid. Directly she has finished 
laying, she turns round again, and, with her jaws, 
busily closes in the edge of the cup, and so seals 
it with a round and smooth covering of wax, a 
proceeding that occupies only a few seconds. 
Each batch of eggs swells into a wax-covered 
bunch of larve, and finally becomes a cluster of 
cocoons. These clusters of cocoons lack the peculiar 
shape of the first cluster; not only is there no 
groove across the middle, but the cocoons in the 
centre are considerably higher than those at the 
sides, also the cocoons are less closely huddled 
together and the wax is more completely cleared 
