182 MESSRS. C. HORNE AND F. SMITH ON HYMENOPTERA 
inches. 
“‘Measurements:—General breadth. . . . . . . 284 
General. dengthy 2) 4: ica cinke anion 
Generalfthickness) je) shen ie ele 
Diameter of cell . ee ee 
Depth of honey-cell. . . . . . I 
Depth of ordinary cell. . . . . 328toH 
Numberot cells¥) 20.) “ae WET Se eee eee 
Honéy*cells;aboutey sh.) aes poce  ane heey ae ee ee UU 
“This nest had been deserted on account of the attacks of a Moth, figured in 
Pl. XXII. fig. 3¢, which had fairly taken possession of the citadel, as I have often seen 
in other instances. The cocoons of some of the escaped moths protruded 2 of an inch 
above the level of the comb, which, as it then was, still weighed three pounds.” 
I remember at Bareilly, in 1856, as Mr. Berkeley was sitting in his veranda, on the 
roof-beam of which a comb of these bees was hanging, he saw them assembling in great 
commotion, and soon after a// swarmed off. He sent me the comb forthwith, and I 
made careful notes upon it, which were destroyed in the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857. 
In this instance the comb was beautifully clean and semitransparent, one of the first 
year, and, held between the eye and the light, did not at first reveal any thing. The eggs 
were there, the seeds of destruction; and I watched it day by day till it all crumbled 
down into a mass of silk and exuvie, some forty or fifty moths having been meanwhile 
hatched therefrom. In this case it is clear that the bees fled at the first attack of the 
quiet little moths. But to return to the Mainpuri nest. 
‘The mouths of the thick new honey-cells were quite circular from the quantity of 
wax applied; those of the pupa-cells were hexagonal, as, of course, were the walls of 
the honey-cells interiorly. ‘The Moth had deposited its eggs at the bottom of the cells 
prepared for storing honey; and the grubs were working their straight galleries in the 
flooring between the cells, always working at right angles, and at present feeding on the 
wax. As they proceeded they wove themselves silken tubes, probably for the purpose 
of protection.” 
As, however, they grew larger and stronger they formed their galleries right through 
the cells, not touching the flooring-wax ; and they then spun over the mouth of the cells 
and changed to the pupa-state. About sixteen moths had escaped from these pupa- 
cases which had been spun up in the cells and which protruded from them; and many 
caterpillars were then working within the comb. 
The habits of these bees have been so often described, that I shall now only mention 
their plan of covering certain cells scattered over the comb, presenting a curious appear- 
ance on its face, which led me to examine them. On one side I counted 186 of such 
closed cells, and on the other 229, making a total of 415, which appears a large 
