CLASS I. INSECTA: ORDER 3. HYMENOPTERA, 



563 



them away from the place. The patience, art, and industry displayed by this little creature in 

 thus excavating a house for her offspring, are truly wonderful. When, by dint of unremitting 

 industry, she has sunk a shaft of sufficient depth, she deposits at the bottom an egg and a ball 

 of pollen, and then, having prepared some clay, she forms a partition above, at a proper distance, 

 and on this deposits another egg and ball of pollen, making another partition of clay, and so on 

 till the shaft or tunnel is divided into six or eight compartments, each with its egg and pollen 

 for the future grub ; the task being at length completed, she covers the external entrance, and 

 so blocks all safely in, leaving the rest to the operations of nature. The wood is not lined with 

 any material, but is worked quite smooth and even. 



The Mining Bees, Andrcnidce, bore pits in sunny banks, to the depth of six or eight inches, ter- 

 minating in a little chamber almost at right angles with the entrance. Both the tubular pit and 

 chamber are very smooth, and in the latter is deposited an egg, with a ball of pollen for the grub. 



HORNETS AND WASPS AND THEIR STRUCTURES, 



THE DIPLOPTERA. 



This term is from the Greek diplos, doubled, and ptera, wings, the species of this family having 

 the wings folded longitudinally when they are at rest. The Common Wasp, Vespa vulgaris, 



