WOOD-BORING BEES. 181 



the sides of the abdomen. The last segment of the male is 

 notable for its termination in five teeth. Its length is rather 

 under half an inch, and it is a very remarkable fact that, con- 

 trary to general usage among insects, the male is larger than the 

 female. 



This bee seldom takes the trouble of making its own burrow, 

 but takes advantage of the deserted tunnel of some other insect, 

 such as the musk-beetle or the goat moth. When she has 

 selected a fitting home, she enlarges it slightly at the end, and 

 then goes in search of soft vegetable fibre wherewith to line it. 

 The mode of procuring the fibre is thus mentioned by White. 

 " There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden campion for 

 the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some 

 purpose in the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to 

 see with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the 

 top to the bottom of a branch, and shaving it bare with the 

 dexterity of a hoop-shaver. When it has got a vast bundle, 

 almost as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between 

 its chin and its fore-legs." 



After performing this part of her duty, she makes a number 

 of cells, using the same material, together with some glutinous 

 substance, places an egg in each cell, and then leaves them. 

 When the larvae have obtained their full dimensions, they spin 

 separate cocoons within the cells, and in the following summer 

 the perfect insects make their appearance. 



If the reader will visit any fir wood, and look out for the 

 dying and dead trees which are sure to be found in such places, 

 he will probably see that many of them are pierced with round 

 holes, large enough to admit an ordinary quill These are the 

 burrows of a splendid insect called Sirex gigas by entomologists. 

 Whether it has any popular name I do not know, but I have 

 never been able to discover one, although I have shown speci- 

 mens of the insect in many parts of England. 



This is the more extraordinary, because it is a really splendid 

 creature, nearly as large as a hornet, having wide wings, a bright 

 yellow and black body, and a long firm ovipositor, so that from 

 the head to the end of the ovipositor it measures an inch and 

 three quarters in length. So unobservant, however, is the general 

 public, that nine -tenths" of those to whom I showed it declared 



