502 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



united labour of the society. The habitations com- 

 posing them are of a rude construction, and the streets 

 are arranged with little architectural regularity. The 

 number of inhabitants, too, is small, rarely exceeding 

 two or three hundred, and often not more than twenty. 

 The nests of some species, as o^ Apis lapidaria, A. tcr- 

 restris, &c. are found under ground at the depth of a 

 foot or more below the surface ; but as the internal 

 structure of these does not essentially differ from that 

 of the more singular habitations of yi. JSIuscoritm^ and 

 as some of the subterranean species occasionally adopt 

 the same situation, I shall confine my description to 

 the latter. 



These nests, which do not exceed six or eight 

 inches in diameter, are generally found in meadows 

 and pastures, and sometimes in hedge-rows where the 

 soil is entangled with roots. The lower half occupies 

 a cavity in the soil, either accidentally found ready 

 made, or excavated with great labour by the bees. 

 The upper part or dome of the nest is composed of a 

 thick felted covering of moss, having the interior ceil- 

 ing coated with a thin roof of coarse wax for the pur- 

 pose of kee-)ing out the wet. The entrance is in the 

 lower part, and is generally through a gallery or co- 

 vered way, sometimes more than a foot in length and 

 half an inch in diameter, by means of which the nest is 

 more effectually concealed from observation. On re- 

 moving the coping of moss, tlie interior presents to our 

 view a very different scene from that witnessed in a 

 bee-hive. Instead of numerous vertical combs of wax, 

 we see merely a few irregular horizontal combs placed 

 one above the other, the uppermost resting upon the 



