Bramble-bees and Others 



Pending the piecing together of the mosaic, 

 the scaffolding keeps the victuals free from all 

 contamination. 



To get rid of what cannot be flung out- 

 side, by hanging it on the celling, is not bad 

 to begin with; but to use It for making a 

 work of art is better still. The honey has dis- 

 appeared. Now commences the final weaving 

 of the cocoon. The grub surrounds itself 

 with a wall of silk, first pure white, then tinted 

 reddish-brown by means of an adhesive var- 

 nish. Through its loose-meshed stuff. It 

 seizes one by one the droppings hanging from 

 the scaffold and Inlays them firmly in the tis- 

 sue. The same mode of work is employed by 

 the Bembex-, Stizus- and Tachytes-wasps and 

 other inlayers, who strengthen the Inadequate 

 woof of their cocoons with grains of sand; 

 only, in their cotton-wool purses, the An- 

 thidlum's grubs substitute for the mineral par- 

 ticles the only solid materials at their disposal. 

 For them, excrement takes the place of 

 pebbles. 



And the work goes none the worse for It, 

 On the contrary : when the cocoon is finished, 

 any one who had not witnessed the process of 

 manufacture would be greatly puzzled to 



290 



