CONSTRUCTION OF INSECT NESTS.^ 



By Prof. Dr. Y. S.tostedt, 

 Royal Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. 



[With 3 plates.] 



Among both the higher and lower animals are found types which 

 can build protective shelters for themselves and for their young by 

 widely varying methods, in some cases with a high degree of art, 

 in others in the simplest manner. In the insect world this art 

 takes the most widely diversified forms, but we can give here only 

 a few examples selected from among thousands. 



The nesting material is of various origins; it may be taken from 

 the vegetable kingdom or from the mineral kingdom, such as earth, 

 clay, etc., or the entire nest may be composed of a secretion of the 

 insect, as is the case with the cells of bees, which are made entirely 

 of wax. 



With the European social bees all the cells, whether intended to 

 contain young larvae or only the pollen, are of the same shape, the 

 cells of the bumblebee being simply larger. In North America other 

 bees are found which make their cells in such a way that remark- 

 able results are obtained with the least possible work. These bees 

 (Meliponas) have no stings. As with many other wild bees, they 

 make their nests in the hollow trunks of trees, where they store up 

 wax and honey in great quantities. The cells intended for the 

 larvae, placed in the middle of these masses of wax, are hexagonal 

 and of nearly the same shape as those of the common bees, but 

 differ from the latter, which are constructed back to back in, two 

 rows with horizontal openings, in being made in a single row with 

 the openings always directed toward the top. All around these 

 hexagonal cells there are large cells of very different shape with 

 large openings, intended exclusively to receive the pollen. The 



1 Translated by permission from the Revue g6n6rale des Sciences, Feb, 15, 1915. 



341 



