HYMENOPTEEA. 



307 



have their parasites, like the Melectas, the humble bees. These 

 are hairy, blackish insects, spotted with white, laying their eggs 

 in the nests of the Anthophoras, which permit them to do so, and, at 

 the expense of their own progeny, bring up the intruder's little 

 ones. 



The Carpenter bee, or Wood-piercer (Xylocopa), hollows out 

 galleries in worm-eaten wood, and builds in them cells placed one 

 over the other, a work often occupying many weeks. She then 

 furnishes the bottom of the cell with poUen^mixed up with honey, 

 lays an egg in the noddle of this paste, /nd closes the cell by a 

 ceiling of sawdust agglutinated with saliva. On this ceiling she 

 establishes a new cell, and so on, right up to the orifice, which she 

 closes in the same manner. Reaumur is astonished, with reason, at 

 the admirable instinct which 2&&ke^tM provident mother determine 



B 



X BBHHHBHMHHMHMHB * 



Fig. 33d.' Carpenter Bee, Pujpse, Eggs, Galleries, and Nests. 



the exact quantity of nourishment which will be necessary for its 

 larva. When this has absorbed all its provision, it alone quite 

 fills up its cell, and changes into a pupa. It is worthy of remark, 



