172 PTILOTA. 



must be evident from a perusal of the details which have been 

 published of the proceedings of the hive-bee and of the ;mt>-, 

 where it will be seen that insects incapable of re-production 

 (neuters) are equally active in preparing nests, &c., with Un- 

 real parent. This branch, therefore, of our inquiry, ought 

 perhaps more correctly to come into the physiological view of 

 insects, although it can hardly be said to be out of place here. 



Insects, as regards the situations in which their eggs are 

 deposited, maybe divided into two classes : those which, with 

 much labour, form a residence, and lay up a store of food 

 for their progeny ; and those which simply place them in 

 situations where the young, when hatched, will be certain to 

 find a due supply of food. 



Of the former, the highest place must be accorded to 

 those social insects which build nests of the most beautiful 

 construction, serving not only for the education of their 

 young (which are produced from eggs placed in separate 

 cells), but also for the habitation of the entire community at 

 large. The hive bee (Apis), humble-bee (Bombus), hor- 

 net, wasps (Vespida), ants (Formicidce), white ants (Ter- 

 mitidee), &c., furnish the most admirable instances of this 

 species of economy.* We are next to notice the saml-\\ a<|. 

 and many solitary species of wild bees and wasps, which 

 construct their nests with great labour in the sand or in rot- 

 ten wood, forming a succession of cells, generally of an oval 

 or rounded form, in which they deposit a supply of food, 

 either of pollen-paste or other insects, sufficient for the 

 nourishment of the larva when hatched from the egg, which 

 is placed in the cell with this supply. Instances of tliis 

 mode of proceeding may be noticed in many Fossorial 

 Hymenoptera (Cerceris, Pompiltis, Sphex, &c.), and in t In- 

 humming bees, Ceratina, Halictus, &c. Here also may 



* I must refer to the articles upon these tribes in the British Cyclopae- 

 dia for ample details of their habits. 



