UPHOLSTERERS 129 



formed transcends conception. Each consists of a 

 succession of layers of a membrane more delicate 

 than the thinnest gold-beater's skin, and more 

 lustrous than the most beautiful satin. In glitter 

 it much resembles the trail left by the snail, and is 

 evidently, from all experiments made, a secretion 

 of the insect elaborated from some special food it 

 consumes ; and by means of its bilobated tongue, 

 which it uses as a trowel, it plasters with it the 

 sides and the bottom of the tube it has excavated 

 to the extent necessary for one division. As this 

 secretion dries rapidly to a membrane, it is succeeded 

 by others, to the number of three or four, which 

 may be separated from each other by careful 

 manipulation. It then stores this cell, deposits 

 the egg, and proceeds to close it with a covercle 

 of double the number of membranes with which 

 the sides are furnished, and continues with another 

 in a similar manner, until it has completed sufficient 

 to fill the tubular cavity, and, after closing the 

 last case similarly to the rest, it stops up the orifice 

 with grains of sand or earth." 



The Carder Bee {Anthidium manicatum) is one 

 of the upholsterers that go abroad for their materials, 

 and her decoration takes more the character of 

 tapestry. She is a larger bee than those just 

 named, her body half an inch long, and the spread 

 of wings an inch. She is too large for bramble- 

 stem exploration, and does not appear to relish 

 hard manual labour such as is involved in digging a 

 shaft in the earth ; so she looks out for the disused 



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