228 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



a circular hole, in a horizontal direction, and large enough to 

 allow her to pass ; then turns at an angle, and drives her tunnel, 



frequently above a foot 

 long, parallel to the grain 

 of the wood, and with a 

 passage at the lower end 

 similar to the entrance at 

 the top. None of the 

 detached fragments are 



wasted, but all are care- 

 carpenter Bee. 



fully laid aside in some 



sheltered spot. The tunnel being completed, the industrious bee 

 now sets forth in quest of honey and pollen, and making a 

 little heap at the bottom of the excavation, deposits an egg 

 upon the store. Over this she then proceeds to build a ceiling, 

 which shall be also the floor of another cell. 



For this purpose she goes off to the magazine of wood-chips, 

 which she has laid by with such provident care, and cementing 

 them together with a glutinous substance, probably secreted by 

 herself, fixes them in a ring, above the heap of pollen. A 

 second ring is then placed within the first, and so on, till the 

 flat ceiling is completed. In this manner at least a dozen com- 

 partments are made, one above the other, and all completed by 

 the mandibles alone, which are admirably formed for the pur- 

 pose of working out the tunnels required being short, stout, 

 and usually furnished at the tip with two teeth, which are 

 rounded somewhat into the form of cheese-cutters. These, 

 when brought into operation, cut out the wood in the same way 

 as a carpenter's double gouge, the teeth being more or less 

 hollowed out within. When the larvas are full-grown, they 

 assume their pupa state, head downward, so as to allow the 

 oldest and lowermost to make its way out of the bottom of the 

 burrow as soon as it becomes winged, an event which consequently 

 takes place earlier than in those which occupy the upper cells. 



If all these burrows and buildings in earth and wood, this 

 leafy tapestry made by single insects, may well be called master- 

 pieces of animal industry, what terms must we use to express 

 our admiration of the labours of the sociable wasps, bees, ants, 

 and termites, the mysteries of whose architectural instinct 

 human understanding is utterly unable to fathom ! Implicitly 



