LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 191 



does not store it up in her nest,) but as nurse- 

 ries for the young grubs. Her nest is not yet 

 finished, but when it is thus far completed, she 

 deposits a number of eggs in the little cells, and 

 soon has the satisfaction of seeing the young 

 ones for whom she has taken all this care and 

 trouble. Her whole attention is now devoted 

 to them ; she puts her head first into one little 

 cell, and then into another, to see how they are 

 getting along, and to supply them with food. She 

 waits upon them with the most untiring pa- 

 tience ; watches over them with a mother's 

 anxiety and love ; and cannot be induced to 

 desert them. Even if her nest should be dug 

 up, exposed to the light, and cut in pieces, she 

 would remain by the young ones, apparently 

 regardless of her own life in her anxiety to 

 prolong theirs. 



In a few weeks after they are hatched, the 

 young are able to assist their mother, and 

 the parent and children then labor together to 

 complete the building of the nest. They form 

 side walls of the same thickness as the roof, and 

 add twelve or thirteen floors or stories similar 

 to the first ; each attached to the other by pillars, 



