HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 247 



The bee last described may be said to exercise the trade of a clothier. 

 Another numerous family would be more properly compared to carpenters, 

 boring with incredible labour out of the solid wood long cylindrical tubes, 

 and dividing them into various cells. Amongst these, one of the most 

 remarkable is Xylocopa 1 violacea, a large species, a native of middle and 

 southern Europe, distinguished by beautiful wings of a deep violet colour, 

 and found commonly 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 process 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 tunnel not 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 labour 

 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 apartment. 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 excavating her tunnel she has detached a large 

 quantity of fibres, which lie on the ground like a heap of saw-dust. This 

 material supplies 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 

 ; scaffolding. When this is sufficiently 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 

 agglutinated particles of 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 labour. 

 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 constructing and furnishing these cells 

 cannot be the work of one or even of two days. Considering that every 



of pollen and honey with which the parent bee had surrounded it. The vermicular 

 shape, however, of the masses with which the cases are surrounded does not seem 

 easily reconcileable with this supposition, unless they are considered as the excre- 

 ment of the larva. 

 1 Apis. **. d. 2. & K. 



& 4 



