INSECT HOME-BUILDERS AND THEIR TOOLS. 265 



at a riglit angle to that by which she entered. Twelve 

 times her own length she hollows out her tunnel (as 

 if a man with his proportionally greater size and 

 strength should cut his way some sixty odd or seventy 

 odd feet into solid timber), and then she prepares to 

 put in floors and furnish the chambers into which her 

 tunnel is thus divided. 



She has been very careful to preserve her " chips " ; 

 no sawdust or shavings obstruct or litter her work, 

 which is clean cut and perfect. All the results of her 

 gnawings are gathered into a compact heap near by 

 and preserved for future use. 



An observer says : " She proceeds thus : At the 

 bottom of her excavation she deposits an egg, and 

 over it fills a space nearly an inch high with pollen of 

 flowers made into a paste with honey. She covers 

 this over with a ceiling composed of cemented saw- 

 dust taken from what she has saved. This also serves 

 for a floor to the next chamber above it. She lays 

 this floor by cementing around the wall a ring of 

 wood chips, and within this ring forms another, and 

 so on until she has constructed a circular plate about 

 the thickness of a ten-cent piece. She proceeds in 

 the same manner until she has completed ten or 

 twelve cells, when she builds up the main entrance 

 with a barrier of similar materials." 



From the bottom cell a back entrance affords 

 egress to the firstborn and first adult bee, and Reau- 

 mur also noticed a door opening from the middle cell. 

 The young bees readily eat through the floors, but 

 can not penetrate the solid wood. The implements 

 19 



