148 THE PHILOSOPHY 



The wood-piercing bee, •which is one of the folitary fpecies, 

 gnaws, with amazing dexterity and perfeverance, a large hole in 

 old timber. After laying her eggs in the cells, fhe depofits fuch a 

 quantity of glutinous matter as nouriflies the worms produced from 

 thefe eggs till the time of their transformation into flies. She then 

 paftes up the mouth of the hole, and leaves her future offspring to 

 the provifion flie has made for them. 



> The bees of that fpecies which build cylindrical nells with rofe- 

 leaves, exhibit a very peculiar inftindl. They firft dig a cylindrical 

 hole in the earth. When that operation Is finifhed, they go in queft 

 of rofe-buflies ; and, after feleding leaves proper for their purpofe, 

 they cut oblong, curved, and even round pieces, esadtly fuited to 

 form the different parts of the cylinder *. 



The folitary wafp digs holes in the fand. In each hole fhe de- 

 pofits an egg. But hovr is the worm, after it is hatched, to be 

 nourifhed ? Here the inftlndl of the mother merits attention. 

 Though fhe feeds not upon ficfh herfclf, and certainly knows not 

 that an animal is to proceed from the egg, and far lefs that this ani- 

 mal muft be nourifhed with other animals, fhe colleds ten or twelve 

 fmall green worms, which fhe piles one above another, rolls them 

 lip in a circular form, and fixes them in the hole in fuch a manner 

 that they cannot move. When the wafp-worra is hatched, it is 

 amply flored with the food Nature has deftined for its fupport. The 

 green worms are devoured in fucceffion't"; and the number depofited 

 is exadlly proportioned to the time necefll\ry for the growth and 

 transformation of the wafp-worm into a fly, when it iffues from, 

 the hole, and is capable of procuring its own nourifhment :};. 



There 



* Reaumur, torn. ii. pag. 138. f Ibid. torn. 12. pag- 18. 



J Ibid. pag. 22. — 32. 



