78 



Insect Architecture. 



account the mother bee has collected the masses of wax, 

 which also contain a supply of pollen moistened with honey, 

 for their subsistence. 



The number of eggs or grubs found in one spheroid of 

 wax varies from three to thirty, and the bees in a whole nest 

 seldom exceed sixty. There are three sizes of bees, of which 

 the females are the largest ; but neither these nor the males 

 are, as in the case of the hive-bee, exempt from labour, the 

 females, indeed, always found the nests, since they alone 

 survive the winter, all the rest perishing with cold. In 

 each nest, also, are several females, that live in harmony 

 together. 



interior views of Carder-Bee's Nest. 



The carder-bees may be easily distinguished from their 

 congeners (of the same genus), by being not unlike the 

 colour of the withered moss with which they build their 



