CARPENTER BEE. 



scouts were observed for a few days before to be reconnoitring 

 about the old hole under the tiles ; and Mr. Stickney is persuaded 

 that if suffered they would have established themselves there. 

 He is certain that for eight years successively the descendants of 

 the very stock that first took possession of the hole frequented it, 

 as above stated, and not those of any other swarm ; having con- 

 stantly noticed them, and ascertained that they were bees from 

 the original hive, by powdering them while about the tiles with 

 yellow ochre, and watching their return. And even later 

 there were still seen, every swarming season, about the tiles, 

 bees which Mr. Stickney has no doubt were descendants from the 

 original stock. 



71. Among the instincts manifested by insects, there is none 

 more remarkable or more admirable than that already mentioned, 

 by which certain species provide a store of food for their young, 



'which differs totally from their own aliment, and which they 

 would themselves regard with disgust. The pompilides, a 

 species resembling wasps, are endowed with this faculty. The 

 insect in its adult state feeds, like the bee, upon floral juices. But 

 its young, in the infant state of larva, is carnivorous. The 

 provident mother, therefore, when she deposits her eggs, never 

 fails to place beside each of them in the nest, in a place 

 prepared to receive it, the carcase of a spider or of some cater- 

 pillar, which she has slain with her sting for that express 

 purpose. 



72. The carpenter bee presents another example of this remark- 

 able instinct, boring with incredible labour in solid wood a 

 habitation which, though altogether unsuitable to itself, is 

 adapted with the most admirable fitness for its young. Among 

 these, one of the most remark- 

 able is the Xylocopa violacca, 



fig. 17, a large species,* a 

 native of middle and southern 

 Europe, distinguished by beau- 

 tiful wings of a deep violet 

 colour, and found commonly 

 in gardens, where she makes 

 her nest in the upright pu- 

 trescent espaliers or vine- Fig. 17. The Carpeuter Bee. 



props, and occasionally in the 



garden-seats, doors, and window- shutters. 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 



* Kirby, vol. i., p. 369. 



143 



