18 



C H E L O S T O M A. 



have before remarked, that the hibernation of these 

 animals does not depend solely on the degree of cold. 

 It begins to bury itself in October, and usually makes 

 a hole about two feet below the surface, where it 

 continues till April. 



The males of this species are in summer tolerably 

 active, and very fierce towards each other. The fe- 

 male lays her eggs towards the end of June, deposit- 

 ing them in a hole, and covering them with sand or 

 mould. They seldom exceed five in number at one 

 time, and are of a white colour, and about the size of 

 those of a pigeon. They are hatched towards the 

 end of September, and the young, when first ex- 

 truded, are scarcely bigger than walnut shells. 



The individuals "of this species live on roots, fruits, 

 worms, and insects, the shells of which latter they 

 easily break with their strong jaws. 



It" has sometimes been alleged that land tortoises 

 do not drink ; but this is not correct : they are, no 

 doubt, abstemious in their drinking, as well as in their 

 eating, but it is well authenticated that they drink 

 water, and that they are even partial to milk. They 

 are very long-lived creatures ; and some of them, 

 even when removed to a colder latitude than that of 

 which thev are natives, have remained healthy for 

 upwards of a century. Their flesh is eatable, and 

 forms an article of human food in Greece ; and the 

 Italians eat the eggs, though not the animals them- 

 selves, at least not generally. Several varieties of 

 this species are described by systematic writers ; but 

 they differ little from each other, except in the mark- 

 ings of the shell. 



The Indian tortoise is a large species, of which in- 

 dividuals have lived, at least for some time, in Bri- 

 tain. One species, presented to the Zoological So- 

 ciety of London, in 1833, measured along the curve 

 of the back four feet four and a half inches ; the 

 length of its sternum two feet eight ; the breadth of 

 the same two feet one ; its total weight two hundred 

 and eighty-five pounds. This individual had lived 

 seventy-seven years at Port Louis in the Island of 

 Mauritius. A large specimen from Bengal, which 

 had died at the gardens of the Society some time 

 previously, enabled a more careful examination to be 

 made of its anatomical structure; but the details of 

 these are not exactly adapted for a popular work. 



The Geometrical Tortoise (Testudo geometrica). 

 This is a very beautiful small species. The shell is 

 black, and the plates, though of considerable thick- 

 ness, are flattened into regular discs, which are beau- 

 tifully marked with yellow rays proceeding regularly 

 from centres. 



CHELOSTOMA (Latreille). A genus of hymen- 

 opterous insects, belonging to the section comprising 

 the bees, Mcllifera, family Apidcs, and sub-family 

 Dasygastres, of Latreille, having the body very long, 

 narrow, and nearly cylindric, with the mandibles 

 advanced, narrowed, curved and notched at the tip ; 

 the labial palpi are composed of a single joint, and 

 the maxillary palpi are three-jointed ; the marginal 

 cell of the upper wings is not narrow at its extremity, 

 and the second abdominal segment of the males is 

 furnished beneath with a curious horny tubercle, answer- 

 ing to which is a singular cavity, covered with satiny 

 down near the anus ; like the division to which it 

 belongs, the belly is amply furnished with a coat of 

 down in the females, which serves for carrying the 

 pollen gathered by the insect, destined for the sup- 

 port of her progeny. These insects, when asleep, 



roll themselves up somewhat like the wood-lice, the 

 ventral horn fitting into the anal cavity above men- 

 tioned ; they usually take their luxurious repose in 

 the middle of a flower, whence the type of the genu 

 has obtained the specific name of Apis Jlorisomnis. 

 An interesting account of the habits of this insect is 

 given in the Entomological Magazine by Mr. Double- 

 day, of which the following condensed statement will 

 not prove uninteresting to our readers. Although 

 the male is a perfect sybarite, a mere voluptuary, the 

 female is the very model of maternal industry, her 

 whole life being spent in providing for her family. 

 Here we may observe, that in this, as in numerous 

 other wild bees, there are no neuters, upon which 

 depend the whole labour of the community; indeed 

 here no community exists, each bee is solitary, and 

 each female has to undergo the task of forming and 

 provisioning its own nest with a sufficient supply of 

 food for its young when hatched, which does not take 

 place until the life of the parent has ceased, so that 

 the young are deprived of that constant attendance, 

 which the hive bees bestow on their progeny. The 

 female chelostoma carefully selects a spot in the 

 posts of trellice, or other out-door wood-work, pre- 

 ferring the sunny side of those parts which are quite 

 dry and going a little to decay ; she there pierces a 

 hole nearly horizontally, about an inch in depth, then 

 changing the direction, she proceeds perpendicularly, 

 her powerful jaws being the only tools wherewith 

 she gnaws her passage through the wood, kicking the 

 saw-dust out of the hole, passing it from one pair of 

 feet to the next. This burrow is nearly a foot long, 

 and in it, when completed, she commences the con- 

 struction of about twenty cells, which are to be filled 

 with pollen paste, and in each of which a single egg 

 is to be placed. As however in the construction of 

 these cells, and the deposition of an egg in each, the 

 bee must work upwards, it is evident that the lowest 

 egg will be deposited first, and will consequently first 

 arrive at the perfect state ; and unless provision were 

 made for this circumstance, the first-born bee would 

 either be compelled to remain a prisoner, in its cell 

 until its upper brethren had taken their departure, or 

 it must make its way through the cells placed above 

 it, which could not be done without detriment to the 

 inhabitants. Now the bee, exhibiting as striking an 

 instance of that principle which we call instinct, as is 

 to be found in any animal whatever, pursues a plan, 

 not indeed by the operation of any thinking foresight, 

 and still less being the result of education, which 

 amply provides against this emergency, by again 

 changing the direction of her burrow, at the bottom 

 of the perpendicular part, so as to emerge again out 

 of the paling. She then closes the hole just above 

 the lower bend by a partition of fine sand, firmly 

 glued together by means of a viscid saliva, with 

 which she is copiously furnished ; then laying at the 

 foot of the enclosed part a sufficient quantity of pollen 

 mixed with honey from the nectaries of flowers, for 

 the support of one larva, in the midst of which she 

 places a single egg, and closes the cell in the same 

 manner as she found its bottom. In this manner she 

 proceeds till she has reached the top of the perpen- 

 dicular part. The two orifices of the burrow are 

 then closed up, the lower one with a mixture similar 

 to that employed in the division of the cells, offering 

 of course but little resistance to the force of the bees 

 when arrived at the perfect state. The upper one, 

 however, being more exposed to danger From rain 



