3S4 tHE philosophy' 



vifions, depofit their own eggs in her cell. After the egg^' 

 of the ichneumon flies are hatched, their worms devour not 

 only the provifions laid up by the mafon-bee, but even her 

 progeny whom Die had laboured ih hard, and with fo much 

 aft and ingenuity, to prote6l. But the mafon-bee has an ene- 

 my ftill more formidable. A certain fly employs the fame 

 ftratagem of iniinuating an egg into one of her cells before 

 it is completed. From this egg proceeds a ftrong and rapa- 

 cious worm, armed with prodigious fangs. The devaftations 

 of this worm are not confined to one cell. He often pierces 

 through each cell in the neft, and fucceflively devours both 

 the mafon-worms, and the provifions fo anxioufly laid up for 

 their fupport by the mother. This ftranger worm is after- 

 wards transformed into a fine beetle, v, ho is enabled to pierce 

 the nefl, and to make his efcape. 



The operations of another fpecies of folitary bees, called 

 tuood-piercerff merit attention. Thefe bees are larger than 

 the queens of the honey-bee. Their bodies are fmooth, ex- 

 cept the fides, which are covered with hair. In the fpring, 

 they frequent gardens, and fearch for rotten, or at leafl: dead 

 wood, in order to make an habitation for their young. When 

 ft female of this fpecies, for fhe receives no affiftance from 

 the male, has fele<51ed a piece of wood, or a decayed tree, 

 flie commences her labour by making a hole in it, which is 

 generally dlre6led toward the axis of the tree. When fhe 

 has advanced about half an inch, fhe alters the diredlion of 

 the hole, and conducts it nearly parallel to the axis of the 

 wood. The fize of her body requires that this hole fliould 

 have a confiderable diameter. It is often fo large as to ad- 

 mit the finger of a man, and it fometimes extends from 

 twelve to fifteen inches in length. If the thicknefs of the 

 wood permits, flie makes three or four of thefe long holes in^ 

 its interior part. M. de Reaumur found three of thefe pa- 

 i^allel holes in an old efpalier poll. Their diameters exceed- 



