IV 



CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 



The Termites with which we last dealt may be 

 regarded as affording a natural transition from the 

 subject of masonry to that of carpentry, for they 

 are accomplished in both arts, though their skill 

 as masons overshadows their work as carpenters 

 except when they obtain access to human dwellings. 

 Like the work of many other of the insect car- 

 penters, the industry of the Termites as wood- 

 workers is of a destructive character, the wood 

 being consumed as food, and in this case only used 

 for constructive work after it has passed through 

 the digestive apparatus and assumed an entirely 

 different character. The higher grade of insect 

 carpentry is seen in the work of the Carpenter Bee 

 and the Carpenter Ant. 



The Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa) are natives of 

 warmer countries than our own, but several species 

 are found in the South of Europe, and the best 

 known of them (X. violacea) extends its northern 

 range as far as the neighbourhood of Paris. The 

 details of the industry of this bee were observed 

 and chronicled years ago by Reaumur, whose account 



7 07 



