CLOTHIERS — CAEPENTERS — MASONS. 



This curious habit of swathing up its pupa in a kind of warm 

 blanket has given to these species the name of clothiers. 



46. Another class of bees has acquired the name of carpenters, 

 from the manner in which they carve out their nest in wood- 

 work. This bee, which is represented in fig. 17, and of which 

 the nest is shown in fig. 18, having been already described in oui 

 Tract on Instinct and Intelligence (72), need not be noticed further 

 here. 



Fig. 17.— The Carpenter Bee. Fig. IS.— Nest of the Carpenter Bee. 



(Xylacope). 



47. Another class of this insect has acquired the name of 

 masons, from the circumstance of building their nests of a sort of 

 artificial stone. The situation selected is usually a stone wall, 

 having a southern aspect, and sheltered on either side by some 

 angular projection. The situation being decided upon, the mother- 

 bee proceeds to collect the materials for the mansion, which consist 

 of sand, with some mixture of earth. These she glues together, 

 grain by grain, with a cement composed of viscid saliva, which 

 she secretes. Having formed this material into little masses, 

 like the grains of small shot, she transports them with her 

 mandibles to the place where she has laid the foundation of her 

 mansion. 



"With a number of these masses, united together by an excellent 

 cement secreted by her organs, she first lays the foundation of the 

 building. She next raises the walls of a cell about an inch in 

 length, and half an inch broad, resembling in form a thimble. 

 In this she deposits an egg, fills it with a mixture of pollen and 

 honey, in the same manner as described in the former case, and 

 after carefully covering it in, proceeds to the erection of a second 

 building of the same kind, which she furnishes in the same manner, 

 and so continues until she has completed from four to eight. 



These cells are not placed in any regular order; some are 



21 



