INSECT HOME-BUILDERS AND THEIR TOOLS. 267 



smaller teeth, and the sides of tlie saw itself as well 

 as its edge are supplied with teeth. It is, in fact, a 

 rasp and saw combined. It not only cuts a groove, 

 but it smooths the sawed surfaces and keeps the kerf 

 open. 



Mr. Gosse, as quoted by the Eev. J. G. Wood, 

 points out that, beautiful and elaborate as these in- 

 struments are, they are but the sheaths of a still finer 

 and more delicate pair of saws. These secondary 

 saws have only a few teeth on the edge, and these 

 near the point ; whereas the sides are furnished with 

 a number of razor-sharp blades, set on their edges, 

 slightly overlapping each other and directed back- 

 ward. In ITature's Teachings there is a notice of 

 several large beetles, called sawyer beetles, which 

 actually answer the purpose of circular saws. Seiz- 

 ing a branch with their deeply toothed jaws, they fly 

 around and around it until it is sawed in two. They 

 have been known to saw ofE a branch larger than an 

 ordinary walking stick. 



III. 



VAENISHERS AND UPHOLSTERERS. 



'No observant lover of Nature can have failed to 

 notice how the buds of the horse-chestnut and other 

 trees are coated with a natural watei'proof varnish, a 

 lacquer that not only protects them from injury but 

 adds materially to their appearance. 



There are times, while this varnish is yet soft and 

 fresh, when the buds and twigs from which it exudes 



