i;o ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



rate ; eventually she assumes proprietorship, and pre- 

 pares to enter into possession. The first thing to be 

 done is to form a chamber to her liking at some dis- 

 tance below the surface ; so she breaks away the soil, 

 and carries or pushes it out bit by bit. The cavity 

 being ready, the next item of procedure is to lay the 

 foundations of the house to be included, which con- 

 trary to the usual custom of builders is begun at the 

 top. Taking leave of the home-site for a time, she 

 flies off to a wooden post, or rail, a window-frame, or 

 some such thing, where with her jaws she busily 

 gnaws away the fibres until she amasses a little 

 bundle. She kneads, and triturates, and moistens 

 the filament with saliva, reducing it to a homogeneous 

 paste or pulp, a kind of papier-mac] te. Back to the 

 nest she hurries with her burden. Here the ductile 

 mass is made to adhere to the centre of the ceiling of 

 the chamber by her jaws and forefeet ; meanwhile she 

 clings to the ceiling by her two last pairs of legs. 

 Supply after supply is acquired and placed, until a 

 pillar about half an inch long, pendant from the ceil- 

 ing, is complete. At the extremity of the pillar, with 

 the same material and in like manner, she attaches 

 three very shallow cylindrical cup-like cells, in 

 depth about a tenth of an inch. They hang bell- 

 wise, and in each she deposits an egg. The young 

 things require protection, and over them the mother 

 simultaneously constructs a roof, umbrella-shaped, 

 and made of paper as the cells, but laid differently, 

 the length of the fibres being almost at right angles 

 to the middle of the proposed comb. On either side 

 of the first group cells are added close together on 



