SOLITARY INSECTS. 183 



outer walls of a house, which is to consist of many chambers, 

 ranged one above another. A hole of about twelve inches in 

 length, she divides into ten or twelve separate apartments, 

 each of which is about an inch high. The roof of the lowest 

 room is the floor of the second, and so on to the uppermost. 

 Each floor is of about the thickness of a French crown. The 

 floors or divisions are composed of particles of wood cemented 

 together by a glutinous substance from the animal's mouth. 

 In making a floor, she commences with gluing an annular 

 plate of wood-dust round the internal circumference of the 

 cavity. To this plate she attaches a second, to the second a 

 third, and to the third a fourth, till the whole floor is comple- 

 ted. The undermost cell requires only a roof, and this roof 

 is a floor to the second, &,c. 



But these operations, though great, and seemingly superior 

 to the powers of a creature so small, are not her only labor. 

 Before roofing in the first cell, she fills it with a paste or pap, 

 composed of the farina of flowers moistened with honey. The 

 quantity of paste is equal to the dimensions of the cell, which 

 is about an inch high, and half an inch in diameter. In this 

 paste, which is to nourish the future worm, she deposits an 

 egg. Immediately after this operation, she begins to form a 

 roof, which not only incloses the first cell, but serves as a 

 floor to the second. The second cell she likewise fills with 

 paste, deposits an egg, and then covers the whole with an- 

 other roof. In this manner she proceeds, till she has divided 

 the whole tube into separate cells. A single tube frequently 

 contains from ten to a dozen of these cells. When the cells 

 are all inclosed, the business of this laborious bee is finished, 

 and she takes no more charge of her future progeny. The 

 attention and solicitude bestowed by many other animals, in 

 rearing their young, are exerted after birth. But, in the wood- 

 piercing bee, as well as in many other insects, this instinctive 

 attachment is reversed. All her labors and all her cares are 

 exerted before she either sees her offspring, or knows that 

 they are to exist. But, after the description that has been 

 given of her amazing operations, she will not be considered 

 as an unnatural mother. With astonishing industry and per- 

 severance, she not only furnishes her young with safe and con- 

 venient lodgings, but lays up for them stores of provisions 

 sufficient to support them till their final metamorphosis into 

 flies, when the new females perform the same almost incredi- 

 ble operations for the protection and sustenance of their own 

 offspring. When the young worm is hatched, it has scarcely 



