184 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



inches in length. None of the chips and fragments are wasted, 

 but are carried aside and carefully stored up in some secure 

 place, sheltered from the action of the wind. 



The tunnel having now been completed, the industrious insect 

 seeks rest in change of employment, and sets off in search of 

 honey and pollen. "With these materials she makes a little heap 

 at the bottom of the tunnel, and deposits an egg upon the food 

 which she has so carefully stored. 



Having now shown her powers as a burrower and a purveyor, 

 she exhibits her skill as a builder, and proceeds to construct, 

 above the inclosed egg, a ceiling, which shall be also the floor of 

 another ceU. For this purpose, she goes off to her store of chips, 

 and fixes them in a ring above the heap of pollen, cementing 

 them together with a glutinous substance, which is probably 

 secreted by herself. A second ring is then placed inside the 

 first, and in this manner the insect proceeds until she has made 

 a nearly flat ceiling of concentric rings. This ceiling bears some 

 resemblance to the operculum of the common water snail. The 

 reader will probably remember, that the ceilings constructed by the 

 ant are made on similar principles. The thickness of each ceiling 

 is about equal to that of a penny. 



The number of cells is extremely variable, but on the average 

 each tunnel contains seven or eight, and the insect certainly 

 makes more than one tunnel As each tunnel generally exceeds a 

 foot in length, and the diameter is large enough to admit the 

 passage of the wide-bodied insect who makes it, the amount of 

 labour performed by the bee is truly wonderful. The jaws are 

 the only boring instruments used, and though they are strong 

 and sharp, they scarcely seem to be adequate to the work for 

 which they are destined. 



In the illustration, the upper part of one of these tunnels is 

 shown, and in the two uppermost cells the egg has not been 

 hatched. In the lower cells the young larva is given, in order 

 to show the attitude in which it passes its early life. When all 

 is completed the entrance is closed, with a barrier formed of the 

 same substance and in the same manner as the ceilings. 



As far as is yet known, no member of the genus Xylocopa is 

 indigenous to this country. 



Among the insect nests in the British Museum is a fine 

 example of the burrow made by a Brazilian member of this 



