36 



HYMENOPTERA 



suitable sort of earth with the material secreted by its own 

 salivary glands ; the amount of cement used is reduced by the 

 artifice of building small stones into the walls of the cell ; the 

 stones are selected with great care. When a cell about an inch 



in depth has been formed in 

 this manner, the bee commences 

 to fill it with food, consisting 

 of honey and pollen ; a little 

 honey is brought and is dis- 

 charged into the cell, then soine 

 pollen is added. This bee, like 

 other Dasygastres, carries the 

 pollen by ' means of hairs on 

 the under surface of the body ; 

 to place this pollen in the cell 

 the Insect therefore enters back- 

 wards, and then with the pair 

 of hind legs brushes and scrapes 

 the under surface of the body 

 so as to make the pollen fall off 

 into the cell ; it then starts for 

 Greece, a fresh cargo ; after a few loads 

 have been placed in the recep- 

 tacle, the Insect mixes the honey and pollen into a paste 

 with the mandibles, and again continues its foraging until it 

 has about half filled the cell ; then an egg is laid, and the 

 apartment is at once closed with cement. This work is all 

 accomplished, if the weather be favourable, in about two days, 

 after which the Insect commences the formation of a second 

 cell, joined to the first, and so on till eight or nine of these 

 receptacles have been constructed ; then comes the final operation 

 of adding an additional protection in the shape of a thick layer of 

 mortar placed over the whole ; the construction, when thus com- 

 pleted, forms a sort of dome of cement about the size of half an 

 orange. In this receptacle the larvae pass many months, exposed 

 to the extreme heat of summer as well as to the cold of winter. 

 The larvae, however, are exposed to numerous other perils ; and we 

 have already related (vol. v. p. 540) how Leucosjris gigas succeeds 

 in perforating the masonry and depositing therein an egg, so that 

 a Leucospis is reared in the cell instead of a Chalicodovia. 



Fic. 19. — Chalicodovia muraria. 

 A, Male ; B, female. 



