20 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



readers may be interested to know what she does 

 with the saw-dust. If they can but get an op- 

 portunity of watching her they will soon see her 

 mode of dealing with it. Standing by the side of 

 the wood she is drilling, and keeping our eyes sted- 

 fastly fixed on the hole, we shall presently observe 

 her head emerging from it, and immediately after 

 she is seen to shovel out a little heap of the dust, 

 which accumulates on the ground beneath into a 

 pile. When her galleries are finished her labour is 

 yet far from accomplished. She has now to deposit 

 her eggs, and make provision for the prospective 

 wants of her young ones. Now, her eggs must 

 not be piled together, nor be scattered about in 

 the same cavity. The larvaB which are to be pro- 

 duced by them must each live in separation from 

 the others. How is this fresh difficulty to be 

 overcome ? The insect soon supplies us with the 

 answer. She has not forgotten her heap of saw- 

 dust. She first deposits an egg at the bottom of 

 the tunnel, and then away she flies to the fields 

 for a load of the fine yellow dust of flowers, called 

 pollen, and also for honey. She mixes these up 

 into a nice little mass of pollen-bread, or cake, 

 which is intended for the food of the larva, when it 



