INSECTS. 



237 



and summer, one may see the wasps alight on the gray weathered boards 

 of fences and barns, and a close examination will show that they are tear- 

 ing off bits of the partially decayed surface with their jaws. These bits 

 they chew up into a pulp, and from this the paper of the nest> is made, 

 and the peculiar ashy color is due to the source from which the materia] 

 is made. 



Inside the nest is a 'comb,' with hexagonal cells like those of the 

 honey-bee; but these cells, instead of being made of wax, are constructed 

 of paper. In each cell an egg is laid, and the young which hatches from 

 it is carefully fed and attended by the workers of the colon}-. These cells 

 are vertical, not horizontal like those of the bees, the mouth being below ; 

 and to prevent the young from falling out, there is a sort of glutinous sub- 

 stance in the cell : when the larva becomes older, 

 its head grows so large that it cannot pass out 

 through the mouth of the cell. After the larva 

 becomes transformed to the adult, the cell it occu- 

 pied is carefully cleaned out, and thus serves again 

 as a home for another, the process being repeated 

 again and again, as the wasps and hornets have 

 several broods in a season. 



Besides our common honey-bees, there are many 

 other insects grouped together as bees. Some of 

 these live solitary lives, while others are social 

 in their habits ; and here we again notice the 

 existence of workers associated with a communal 

 life. Many of the solitary forms construct the 

 burrow for rearing their young, much as do the 

 digging-wasps, provisioning the cells in much 

 the same manner, except that instead of insects 

 they use the pollen of plants, which they mix 

 into a sort of paste. 



Frederick Smith, an English entomologist, 

 who has paid especial attention to the bees, 

 writes : " If I were asked which genus of bees 

 would afford the most abundant materials for an 

 essay on the diversity of instinct, I would with- 

 out hesitation 'point out the genus Osmia," the FlG - 226 -^ ^°i^) bnrrowing " 

 mason-bees. The name mason-bees refers to their 



fondness for mud in the construction of then cells, some of which are dug 

 out of hard wood, others in the earth, while still others are plastered oi 

 the under sides of boards and stones. In short, there is hardly any situa- 



