Wonders of Insect Architecture. 



in linear fashion, and connected firmly together by 

 means of the outer layer of cotton. The transverse 

 divisions between the chambers are also formed of 

 cotton, and each chamber is stored with a mixture of 

 honey and pollen. The series of chambers does not 

 extend quite to the end of the reed, and in the un- 

 occupied space the insect accumulates small stores, little 

 pieces of earth, fragments of wood or other similar small 

 objects, so as to form a sort of barricade in the vesti- 

 bule, and then closes the tube by a barrier of coarser 

 cotton taken frequently from some other plant, the 

 mullein by preference. This barricade would appear 

 to be an ingenious attempt to keep out parasites ; but 

 if so it is a failure, at any rate as against Leucospis, 

 which insinuates its eggs through the sides, and fre- 

 quently destroys to the last one the inhabitants of the 

 fortress." 



Besides the Solitary Bees just described, there are 

 a vast number equally skilful in their methods of build- 

 ing and in their habits ; but limitations of space render 

 it impossible to further refer to them, and we must 

 devote the remainder of this chapter to a very brief 

 description of the Solitary Wasps. In these remark- 

 able insects we appear to reach the very apex of insect 

 intelligence in the work of collecting and storing special 

 food supplies for the young. They form a very large 

 group of insects, to which a great deal of attention and 

 careful observation has been paid ; and so curious and 

 interesting are they in their habits, that it becomes 

 difficult to make a selection of examples which shall 

 do justice to the whole. It is, however, more in the 

 different methods employed in the capture of prey 



