Wonders of Insect Architecture. 



happen to be at hand. A satisfactory site having been 

 found, the Carpenter Bee at once sets to work, and 

 gnaws away with her strong mandibles to excavate a 

 cylindrical hole, some twelve inches or more in depth, 

 and which ultimately gives access to three or four 

 parallel galleries, in which she will form her broad cells. 

 This piece of carpentry is by no means a light under- 

 taking, and the bee may have to labour incessantly for 

 several weeks ere she sees its completion satisfactorily 

 accomplished. Small wonder, therefore, that she gladly 

 welcomes the discovery of an old gallery in a tree, or 

 a wooden post, or a beam already perforated by cylin- 

 drical holes, and will at once utilize such sites to meet 

 her requirements. The work of excavation completed, 

 the Carpenter Bee flies off, and collects honey and pollen 

 for the usual honey paste to provision her cells, after the 

 manner of the Mason and Leaf-cutting Bees. The 

 honey mass accumulated and the egg deposited, the 

 Carpenter Bee now proceeds to build up a partition 

 wall to isolate the cell. This she does by mixing saliva 

 from her jaws with the sawdust she has accumulated 

 in the course of her work of excavating the gallery, 

 working the sawdust up in this way into a thick pulp. 

 More supplies of food are brought in, another egg de- 

 posited, and another separating partition of wood pulp 

 formed, and this process is continued until about a 

 dozen of these cells have been constructed, one above 

 the other ; then the entrance to the gallery is closed. 



We have in Great Britain a very interesting little 

 bee which makes its nest of wool or cotton, which it 

 obtains from plants growing near at hand. This inter- 

 esting little weaver is known as the Carder Bee, and is 



