132 ARTICULATES! INSECTS. 



forty kinds in North America. They build nests in 

 the ground, or under stones, or in deserted mouse-nests, 

 and their cells are large and egg-shaped. Sometimes 

 there are four hundred bees in a community, the de- 

 scendants of one female bee which lived throxigh the 

 winter and founded the colony in the spring. The Car- 

 penter Bees are also large, and they cut tubular holes 

 in posts and stumps, and lay their eggs there, arrang- 

 ing them in layers of the pollen of flowers. The Ma- 

 son Bees make their nests of sand, in crevices. 



WASPS. 



Wasps usually live in colonies composed of males, 

 females, and workers. Unlike Bees, they prey upon 

 other insects. They build nests under ground, or in 

 holes, or attach them to bushes, trees, fences, or build- 

 ings. The nest is usually made of a substance which 

 they gnaw from wood, and which, by the action of their 



Kg. 257.— 



jaws, they reduce to a pulp, which hardens into a sort 

 of paper. The "Wasps were the first paper-makers, and 

 they were the first to show that paper can be made of 

 wood. The combs lie horizontally in the nest, and are 

 made of the same paper-like material as the nest, and 



