THE AMEEICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



97 



violacea, a large species, a native of Middle and 

 Southern Europe, disting'uished by beautiful 

 wings of a deep violet color, and found com- 

 monly in gardens, in the upright putrescent 

 espaliers or vine props of which, and occasionally 

 in the garden seats, doors,and'window-shutters, 

 she makes her nest. In the beginning of spring, 

 after repeated and careful surveys, she fixes 

 upon a piece of wood suitable for her purpose, 

 and with her strong mandibles begins the pro- 

 cess of boring. First proceeding obliquely 

 downwards, she soon points her course in a 

 direction parallel with the sides of the wood, 

 and at length with unwearied exertion forms a 

 cylindrical hole or tunnetnot less than twelve 

 or fifteen inches long, and half an inch broad. 

 Sometimes, where the diameter will admit of 

 it, three or four of these pipes, nearly parallel 

 with each other, are bored in the same piece. 

 Herculean as this task, which is the labor of 

 several days, appears, it is but a small part of 

 what our industrious bee cheerfully undertakes. 

 As yet she has completed but the shell of the 

 destined habitation of her offspring, each of 

 which, to the number of ten or twelve, will 

 require a separate and distinct apjfrtment. 

 How, you will ask, is she to form these ? With 

 what materials can she construct the floors and 

 ceilings? Why truly God "doth instruct her 

 to discretion and doth teach her." In ex- 

 cavating her tunnel slie has detached a large 

 quantity of fibres, which lie on the ground like 

 a heap of saw-dust, 'i'his material supijlies all 

 her wants. Having deposited an egg at the 

 bottom of the cylinder along with the requisite 

 store of pollen and honey, she next, at the 

 height of about three quarters of an inch, 

 (which is the depth of each cell,) constructs of 

 particles of the saw-dust glued together and 

 also to the sides of the tunnel, what may be 

 called an annular stage or scaflblding. When 

 this is suiiiciently hardened, its interior edge 

 affords support for a second ring of the same 

 materials, and thus the ceiling is gradually^ 

 formed of these concentric circles till there 

 remains only a small orifice in its centre, which 

 is also closed with a circular mass of agglutin- 

 ated saw-dust. When this partition, which 

 serves as the ceiling of the first cell and the 

 flooring of the second, is finished, it is about 

 the thickness of a crown-piece, and exhibits the 

 appearance of as many concentric circles as the 

 animal has made pauses in her labor. One 

 cell being finished, she proceeds to another, 

 which she furnishes and completes in the same 

 manner, and so on, until she has divided her 

 whole tunnel into ten or twelve apartments. 



Here, if you have followed me in this detail 

 with the interest which I wish it to inspire, a 

 query will suggest itself. It will strike you 

 that such a laborious undertaking as the con- 

 structing and furnishing these cells cannot be 

 the work of one or even of two days. Con- 

 sidering that every cell requires a store of 

 honey and pollen, not to be collected but with 

 long toil, and that a considerable interval must 

 be spent in agglutinating the floors of each, it 

 will be very obvious to you that the last egg in 

 the last cell must be laid many days after the 

 first. We are certain, therefore, that the first 



egg will become a grub, and, consequently, a 

 perfect bee many days before the last. What 

 then becomes of it ? you will ask. It is impos- 

 sible that it should make its escape through 

 eleven superincumbent cells without destroying 

 the immature tenants ; and it seems equally 

 impossible that it should remain patiently 

 in confinement below them until they are 

 all disclosed. This dilemma our heaven-taught 

 architect has provided against. With fore- 

 thought never enough to be admired she has 

 not constructed her tunnel with one opening 

 only, but at the further end has pierced another 

 orifice, a kind of back door, through which the 

 insects produced by the first-laid eggs succes- 

 sively emerge into day. In fact, all the j'oung 

 bees, even the uppermost, go ovit by this road ; 

 for, by an exquisite instinct, each grub, when 

 about to become a pupa?, i^laces itself in its cell 

 with its head downwards, and thus is necessi- 

 tated, when arrived at its last state, to pierce 

 its cell in this direction. 



Ceratina albilahris of Spiuola, who has given 

 an interesting account of its manners, forms 

 its cell upon the general plan of the bee just 

 described, but, more economical of labor, 

 chooses a branch of briar or bramble, in the 

 pith of which she excavates a canal about a 

 foot long, and one line, or sometimes more, in 

 diameter, with from eight to twelve cells sepa- 

 rated from each other by partitions of particles 

 of pith glued together ; and from the dead 

 sticks of the same plants in which they had 

 formed their cells in a similar way, M. M. 

 Dufour and Ferris have bred in the sandy dis- 

 trict of the Lancles, in the south-west of France, 

 not fewer than twelve distinct species of wild 

 bees. 



Such are the curious habitations of the car- 

 penter bees and their analogues. Next I shall 

 introduce you to the not less interesting struc- 

 tures of another group of bees, which carry on 

 the trade of masons, (Ilegachile 'inuraria,) 

 building their solid houses solely of artificial 

 stone. The first step of the mother bee is to 

 fix upon a proper situation for the future man- 

 sion of her offspring. For this she usually 

 selects an angle, sheltered by any projection, 

 on the south side of a stone wall. Her next 

 care is to provide materials for the structure. 

 The chief of these is sand, which she carefulh" 

 selects grain by grain from such as contains 

 some mixture of earth. These grains she glues 

 together with her viscid saliva into masses the 

 size of small shot, and transports by means of 

 her jaws to the site of her castle. With a 

 number of these masses, which are the artificial 

 stone of which her building is to be composed, 

 united by a cement preferable to ours, she first 

 forms the basis or foundation of the whole. 

 Next she raises the walls of a cell, which is 

 about an inch in length, and half an inch 

 broad, and, before its orifice is closed, in form 

 resembles a thimble. This, after depositing an 

 egg and a supply of honey and pollen, she ■ 

 covers in, and then proceeds to the arectiou oi' 

 a second, which she finishes in the same manner, 

 until the whole number, which varies from tour 

 to eight, is completed. The vacuities between 

 the cells, which are not placed in any regular i 



