58 



Insect Architecture. 



she therefore does not hesitate to cut it off from any addi- 

 tional supply. In constructing her cells, she does not employ 

 clay, like the bee which we have mentioned above, but the 

 sawdust, if we may call it so, which she has collected in 

 gnawing out the gallery. It would not, therefore, have 



A represents a part of an espalier prop, tunnelled in several places by the violet 

 Carpenter-Bee : the stick is split, and shows the nests and passages by which they are 

 approached. B, a portion of the prop, half the natural size. C, a piece of thin stick, 

 pierced by the Carpenter-Bee, and split, to show the nests. D, perspective view of one 

 of the partitions. E, Carpenter-Bee (Xylocopa violacea). F, Teeth of the Carpenter-Bee, 

 greatly magnified ; a, the upper side ; b, the lower side. 



suited her design to scatter this about, as our carpenter-bee 

 did. The violet-bee, on the contrary, collects her gnawings 

 into a little store -heap for future use, at a short distance 

 from her nest. She proceeds thus : At the bottom of her 

 excavation she deposits an egg, and over it fills a space nearly 



