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366 THE INSEOT WORLD. 
have their parasites, the JJelectas, like the humble bees. These 
parasites are hairy, blackish insects, spotted with white, laying 
their eggs in the nests of the Anthophoras, which permit them to 
do so, and, at the expense of their own progeny, bring up the 
intruder’s little ones. 
The Carpenter Bee, or Wood-piercer (Xylocopa), hollows out 
galleries in decayed wood, and builds in them cells placed one 
over the other, a work often occupying many weeks. She then 
furnishes the bottom of the cell with pollen mixed up with honey, 
lays an egg in the middle of this paste, and closes the cell by a 
ceiling of sawdust agglutinated with saliva. On this ceiling she 

































































































































































































































































Hig. 389.—Carpenter Bee, Pupe, Eggs, Galleries, and Nests. 
establishes a new cell, and so on, right up to the orifice, which she 
closes in the same manner. Réaumur is astonished, with reason, 
at the admirable instinct which makes this provident mother 
determine the exact quantity of nourishment which will be neces- 
sary for its larva. When this has absorbed all its provision, it 
alone quite fills up its cell, and changes into a pupa. It is worthy 
