182 MESSES. C. HOENE AND T. SMITH ON HYMENOPTEEA 



inches. 



"Measurements: — General breadth 28 2 



General length 22 



General thickness 1^ 



Diameter of cell Te 



Depth of honey-cell Is 



Depth of ordinary cell tb" *^ Te 



Number of cells ^l^^^ 



Honey cells, about 2000 



'' This nest had been deserted on account of the attacks of a Moth, figured in 

 PI. XXII. fig. 3c, which had fairly taken possession of the citadel, as I have often seen 

 in other instances. The cocoons of some of the escaped moths protruded | of an inch 

 above the level of the comb, which, as it then was, still weighed three pounds." 



I remember at Bareilly, in 1856, as Mr. Berkeley was sitting in his veranda, on the 

 roof-beam of which a comb of these bees was hanging, he saw them assembling in great 

 commotion, and soon after all swarmed off. He sent me the comb forthwith, and I 

 made careful notes upon it, which were destroyed in the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857. 

 In this instance the comb was beautifully clean and semitransparent, one of the first 

 year, and, held between the eye and the light, did not at first reveal any thing. The eggs 

 were there, the seeds of destruction ; and I watched it day by day till it all crumbled 

 down into a mass of silk and exuviae, some forty or fifty moths having been meanwhile 

 hatched therefrom. In this case it is clear that the bees fled at the first attack of the 

 quiet little moths. But to return to the Mainpuri nest. 



" The mouths of the thick new honey-cells were quite circular from the quantity of 

 wax applied ; those of the pupa-cells were hexagonal, as, of course, were the walls of 

 the honey-cells interiorly. The Moth had deposited its eggs at the bottom of the cells 

 prepared for storing honey ; and the grubs were working their straight galleries in the 

 flooring between the cells, always working at right angles, and at present feeding on the 

 wax. As they proceeded they wove themselves silken tubes, probably for the purpose 

 of protection." 



As, however, they grew larger and stronger they formed their galleries right through 

 the cells, not touching the flooring-wax ; and they then spun over the mouth of the cells 

 and changed to the pupa-state. About sixteen moths had escaped from these pupa- 

 cases which had been spun up in the cells and which protruded from them ; and many 

 caterpillars were then working within the comb. 



The habits of these bees have been so often described, that I shall now only mention 

 their plan of covering certain cells scattered over the comb, presenting a curious appear- 

 ance on its face, which led me to examine them. On one side I counted 186 of such 

 closed cells, and on the other 229, making a total of 415, which appears a large 



