50 Insect Architecture. 



The nest is made of mud, which is collected by the patient 

 insect and stuck against walls, trunks of trees, and similar 

 localities. In this lump of mud the insect excavates a small 

 number of burrows, each of which contains several cells. If 

 the reader will refer to the central burrow, he will see that it 

 is divided into three cells. The specimen from which this 

 drawing is taken may be seen in the British Museum. 



There is another South African insect which makes its mud 

 nest, and fastens it against trees and walls. This is called 

 Synagris calida, and its colour is almost dingy black, the only 



exception being the red tip to the abdomen. The holes seen 

 in the engraving are the apertures through which the young 

 brood has escaped into the world. The nest is represented 

 of half its natural size.] 



MINING-BEES. 



A very small sort of bees (Andrenoe), many of them not 

 larger than a house-fly, dig in the ground tubular galleries 

 little wider than the diameter of their own bodies. Samouelle 

 says, that all of them seem to prefer a southern aspect ; but 

 we have found them in banks facing the east, and even the 

 north. Immediately above the spot where we have described 

 the mason-bees quarrying the clay, we observed several holes, 

 about the diameter of the stalk of a tobacco-pipe, into which 

 those little bees were seen passing. The clay here was very 

 hard ; and on passing a straw into the hole as a director, and 

 digging down for six or eight inches, a very smooth circular 



