Insect Homes. 43 



Unlike any of the above in their habits are the wood-boring bees 

 so well represented by our large Xylocopa fimbriata F., and the small 

 Meliponas. Our large Xylocopas are such busy fellows that we should 

 certainly know about their homes. As we have previously said, they 

 are wood borers, and with their strong mandibles they make tunnels 

 several inches deep and about f of an inch wide. At the bottom of 

 the tunnel a ball of honey and pollen is placed and on this an egg is laid. 

 A short distance above this the bee places a wad of sawdust, stuck 

 together by a secretion of its own, to close the cell and at the same time 

 form the floor of the next cell. In the cell above the same thing happens 

 until the tunnel, which usually consists of 3 or 4 cells, is filled. It can at 

 once be seen that the bottom cell will contain the oldest insect which, 

 when it was ready to emerge, would be unable to do so had it not some 

 unusual method. These insects have developed a peculiar habit to overcome 

 this difficulty and the freshly emerged adult bites its way out by forming 

 another tunnel going off at right angles to its home, and through this 

 tunnel, in succession, pass the newly formed bees. 



The Meliponas on the other hand occupy hollows in trees. If the 

 space is too big it is stopped at a suitable distance before the nest is 

 formed, and the entrance is always reduced to a small hole by filling in 

 the area with wax. These insects make complicated homes and the honey 

 cells, the wax cells, and the cells containing the larvae are all kept separate 

 and are often oven of entirely different shapes. 



In the Ants (Fam. Formicidae) we have probably the most highly 

 developed house buildei s among the insects ; they, however, are usually 

 subterranean dwellers. The entire Family are remarkably intelligent and 

 have received considerable attention. For our example we will consider 

 the well-known and much written about ' Coushi ' (Atta cephalotes L. et 

 spp.) These ants agriculturists probably know only too well, for many, 

 particularly those on our river lands, suffer from their depredations ; but 

 apart from this they are highly interesting. 



' Coushi ' ants, in addition to making subterranean dwelling in which 

 their young are brought up, have developed further in that they grow 

 their food. The pieces of leaves cut from the plants by these ants are 

 not eaten as is the popular idea, but are stored in chambers below the 

 ground where a particular fungus grows on them and it is this fungus 

 that forms the food of the ants. Here, as has already been pointed out, 

 we have a very high development of this habit of home- building and 

 probably the nearest approach to our idea of a home. 



Termites (Order Isoptera) are another group of insects whose homes 

 must be familiar to many in the tropics, and it is this habit of making a 

 nest that has probably earned them the local name of f wood ants.' The 

 nests are familiar enough in this colony and can often be seen attached to 

 paling posts, beams of houses, and stools of sugar cane. 



