140 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



CHAPTER VII. 



BURROWING INSECTS. 



HYMENOPTERA. 



The Sauba Ant and its Habitation. — Use of the "Parasol" Leaves. — Mr. Bates's 

 Account of the Insect. — Enormous Extent of the Dwelling. — The Ddskt Ant. — 

 Its Strength and Perseverance. — Man and Insect contrasted. — The Bkown Ant. 

 — Form of its Habitation. — Regulation of Temperature. — Necessity of Moisture. 

 —How the Ant constructs Ceilings.— Mining Bees. — The Andrena and its bur- 

 rowing Powers. — The Eucera. — Its Habitation and curious Method of liberating 

 the Antennae. — The Scolia, its Burrows and its Prey. — The Indian Sphex and 

 its Ingenuity. — The Mellinus and Oxybelus. — Curious Method of catching 

 Prey. — The Philanthus, its Burrow, and the Food of its Young — The Humble- 

 bee — its general Habits. — Locality of its Dwelling. — Development of the Young. 

 — The Lapidary Bee, its Colors, Disposition, and Habits. — The Wasp — its Food 

 and Habitation. — Materials and Architecture of the Nest. — Disposition, Form, 

 and Number of the Cells. — Biography of a Queen Wasp, and History of her Nest. 

 — Other British Wasps and their Homes. — The Monedrila and its Prey. — Bold- 

 ness of the Insect, and its Uses to Travelers. — Thfe Bembex. — Its energetic Hab- 

 its, its Food, and Mode of storing the Nest. 



The burrowing Insects now come before our notice. 



Of these creatures there is much store, for, indeed, the greater 

 number of insects are wholly or entirely burrowers at some pe- 

 riod of their existence. It frequently happens that the very in- 

 sects which we most admire, which are decorated with the most 

 brilliant colors, and which soar on the most ethereal wings, have 

 passed the greater portion of their lives as burrowers beneath the 

 surface of the earth. 



Take, for example, the well-known May-fly, or Ephemera, so 

 called because its existence was once thought to be comprised 

 within the limits of a single day. How delicate are its gauzy 

 wings; how wonderful are the iridescent tints which play over 

 their surface with a changeful radiance, like that of the opal or 

 the pigeon's neck; and how marvelous is the muscular power 

 which enables the new-born being to disport itself in the air for 

 a period which, in comparison with our own lives, is equal to at 

 least forty years! It never seems to weary. It wavers up and 

 down, up and down in the air, together with myriads of its com- 

 panions, and for the greater portion of its terrestrial existence is 



