128 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



egg in the last cell must bo laid many days after the first ; 

 and, consequently, the egg in the first cell must have changed 

 into a grub, and then into a proper Bee, many days before the 

 last. What, then, becomes of it? It is impossible that it 

 should make its escape through eleven superincumbent cells 

 without destroying the immature tenants ; and it seems equally 

 impossible that it should remain patiently in confinement 

 until they are all disclosed. This dilemma our heaven- taught 

 architect has provided against. With forethought never 

 enough to be admired, she has not constructed her tunnel 

 with one opening only, but at the farther end has pierced 

 another orifice, a kind of back-door, through which the insects 

 produced by the first-laid eggs successively emerge into day. 

 In fact, all the young Bees, even the uppermost, go out by 

 this road; for, by an exquisite instinct, each grub, when 

 about to become a pupa, places itself in its cell with its head 

 downwards, and thus is necessitated, when arrived at its last 

 ;state, to pierce its cell in this direction."* 



Another group of artisan Bees carry on the business, not 

 of carpenters, but of masons, building their solid houses solely 

 of artificial stone. This material is formed of particles of 

 sand, agglutinated together, and the mansion is generally 

 erected in some eligible site, sheltered by a projection, and 

 facing the south. But there are others still more luxurious, 

 who hang the interior of their dwellings with a tapestry of 

 leaves or flowers. These are the upholsterers ; among them 

 is "a species (Apis papaveris), whose manners have been 

 admirably described by Keaumur. This little Bee, as though 

 fascinated with the colour most attractive to our eyes, inva- 

 riably chooses for the hangings of her apartments the most 

 brilliant scarlet, selecting for its material the petals of the 

 wild poppy, which she dexterously cuts into the proper form."f 

 I The bottom of the chamber she has excavated is rendered 

 warm by three or four coats, and the sides have never less 

 than two. Other native species of the same family are content 

 with more sober colours, generally selecting for their tapestry 

 the leaves of trees, and especially those of the rose ; whence 

 they have obtained the name of leaf-cutter Bees. 



The social Bees have, in each community, three kinds of 



* Taken from Kirby and Spence, vol. i. page 440, who give the facts 

 on the authority of Reaumur. 



t Kirby and Spence, vol. i, pages 443, 444. 



