184 FIRST LESSONS IN ZOOLOGY 



has been forced to tlie bottom of tiie nest hy the \'oung 

 bees making their escape, is cleaned out b}- the family, 

 the old bee and the young ones all working together. 

 Then the nest is ready to be used again by one of the 

 bees. 



Some solitary bees make cells for their young out of 

 neatl}' cut pieces of leaves. The common leaf-cutter bee 

 first makes a tunnel in wood, often selecting that which is 

 partly decayed ; it then proceeds to build a thimble- 

 shaped tube at the bottom of the tunnel. For this pur- 

 pose it cuts from the leaves oblong pieces, each of which 

 forms a part of a side and the bottom of the thimble- 

 shaped tube. The tube being completed the bee par- 

 tially fills it with a paste of pollen and nectar upon which 

 she then places an egg. Lastly, she cuts several circular 

 leaf pieces, the diameter of which is a little greater than 

 the diameter of the tube, and forces them into the open 

 end of it, thus making a tightly fitting plug. Usually 

 several cells of this kind are placed end to end in a bur- 

 row; and sometimes many bees will build their nests to- 

 gether in the same piece of wood. 



For an account of the life of the bumble-bees and 

 honey-bee, see Chap. XX. 



The digger-wasps differ from the social kinds, such as 

 the yellow-jackets and hornets, just as the solitary bees 

 do from the honey-bees. There are no neuter-worker 

 wasps, but each female makes a separate nest and pro- 

 visions it by her own labor. The stored food consists, not 

 of pollen and nectar, as with the bees, biit of paralyzed 

 or killed insects or spiders. In some cases a new nest is 

 made for each egg. ' ' Tlie nests ma\' be made of mud, and 

 attached, for shelter, under leaves, rocks, or eaves of 

 buildings, or ma>' be burrows liollowed out in the ground, 

 in trees, or in the stems f)f plants. The adult wasp lives 

 upon fruit or nectar, but the young grub f)r larva must have 



