266 FOREIGN BEES. 



had opportunities of observing its habits. The best 

 account is that given by Reaumur,, of which we shaL 

 therefore introduce an abridgement, premising that 

 the insect is entirely of a black colour, the wings 

 deeply tinted with violet, and the male having a 

 reddish ring at the extremity of the antennse. 



" The mother-bee usually makes her appearance 

 early in the year, as soon as winter is over. She may 

 then be met with in gardens, visiting such walls as are 

 covered with trees trained upon trellis work, in a 

 warm sunny aspect. When once she has begun to 

 make her appearance, she frequently returns, and 

 during a long period ; and she may always be known 

 by her size, and her hum, which much resembles that 

 of the Bombinatrices. The object of her earlier visits 

 is to fix upon a piece of wood proper for her purposes. 

 She usually selects the putrescent uprights of arbours, 

 espaliers, or the props of vines ; but sometimes she 

 will attack garden seats, thick doors, and window 

 shutters ; the piece that she chooses is usually cylind- 

 rical, and perpendicular to the horizon. Her strong 

 maxillse are the instruments she employs in boring 

 it ; beginning on one side for a little way she points 

 her course obliquely downwards, and then forwards 

 in a direction parallel with its sides, till she has bored 

 a tunnel of from twelve to fifteen inches in length, 

 and seven or eight lines in diameter. A passage is 

 left where she enters or first begins to bore, and 

 another at the other end of the pipe. As the indus- 

 trious animal proceeds in her employment, she clears 

 away the wood that she detaches, throwing it out upon 



