Insect Study 



441 



The story of the little carpenter-wasps is similar to that of the bee, 

 except that we have reason to believe they often use her abandoned 

 tunnels instead of making new ones They make their little partitions 

 out of mud ; their pupae are always in long, slender, silken cocoons, and we 

 have no evidence that the mother remains in attendance. 



LESSON CI 

 The Little Carpenter-bee 



Leading thought — Not all bees live in colonies like 

 the honey-bees and bumblebees. One tiny bee rears 

 her brood within a tunnel which she makes in the 

 pith of sumac, elder or raspberry. 



Method — This lesson may be given in June or in 

 October. In June, the whole family of bees in their 

 apartments may be observed ; in autumn, the empty 

 tenement with the fragments of the partitions still 

 clinging may be readily found and examined ; and 

 sometimes a whole family may be found, stowed away 

 in the home tunnel, for the winter. 



Observations — i. Collect dead twigs of sumac or 

 elder and cut them in half, lengthwise. Do you find 

 any with the pith tunneled out? 



2 How long is the tunnel ? . Are its sides smooth ? 

 Can you see the partitions which divide the long 

 narrow tunnel into cells? Look at the partitions with 

 a lens, if necessary , to determine whether they are made 

 of tiny bits of wood or of mud. If made of mud, what 

 insect made them? If of little chips how and by what 

 were they constructed? 



3. Are there any insects in the cells? If so. 

 describe them. Is there bee-bread in the cells? 



4. For what was the tunnel made? With what 

 tools was it made? How are the partitions fastened 

 together? How does a young bee look? 



5. Write the story of the oldest of the bee family 

 which lived in this tunnel. Why did it hatch first? 

 On what did it feed? When it became a full fledged 

 bee, what did it do? How did it finally get out? 



6 Take a glass tube, the hollow at the center 

 being about one-eighth of an inch across, a tube 

 which you can get in any drug-store. Break this 

 tube into sections, six or seven inches long, wrap 

 around each a black paper or cloth, made fast with 

 rubber bands and suspend them in a hedge or among 

 thick bushes in May. Examine these tubes each week 

 to see if the wasps or bees are using them. 



Supplementary reading — "The Story We Love 

 Best," in Ways of the Six-footed, Comstock. 



Nest of large car- 



penler-wasp 

 Comstock's Manual. 



