204 ■ HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



post, or a piece of wooden railing, she bores a circular hole about 

 an inch and a half in length, and large enough to permit her to 

 pass. Suddenly, she turns at an angle, and drives her tunnel 

 parallel to the grain of the wood, and makes a burrow of several 

 inches in length. None of the chips and fragments are wasted, 

 but are carried aside and carefully stored up in some secure place, 

 sheltered from the action of the wind. 



The tunnel having now been completed, the industrious insect 

 seeks rest in change of employment, and sets off in search of hon- 

 ey and pollen. With these materials she makes a little heap at 

 the bottom of the tunnel, and deposits an egg upon the food 

 which she has so carefully stored 



Having now shown her powers as a burrower and a purveyor, 

 she exhibits her skill as a builder, and proceeds to construct, 

 above the inclosed egg, a ceiling, which shall be also the floor of 

 another cell. For this purpose, she goes off to her store of chips, 

 and fixes them in a ring above the heap of pollen, cementing 

 them together with a glutinous substance, which is probably se- 

 creted by herself A second ring is then placed inside the first, 

 and in this manner the insect proceeds until she has made a near- 

 ly flat ceiling of concentric rings. This ceiling bears some resem- 

 blance to the operculum of the common water snail. The reader 

 will probably remember, that the ceilings constructed by the ant 

 are made on similar principles. The thickness of each ceiling is 

 about equal to that of a penny. 



The number of cells is extremely variable, but on the average 

 each tunnel contains seven or eight, and the insect certainly 

 makes more than one tunnel. As each tunnel generally exceeds 

 a foot in length, and the diameter is large enough to admit the 

 passage of the wide-bodied insect who makes if, the amount of 

 labor performed by the bee is truly wonderful. The jaws are the 

 only boring instruments used, and though they are strong and 

 sharp, they scarcely seem to be adequate to the work for which 

 they are destined. 



In the illustration, the upper part of one of these tunnels is 

 shown, and in the two uppermost cells the egg has not been 

 hatched. In the lower cells the young larva is given, in order to 

 show the attitude in which it passes its early life. When all is 

 completed the entrance is closed, with a barrier formed of the 

 same substance and in the same manner as the ceilings. 



As far as is yet known, no member of the genus Xylocopa is 

 indigenous to this country. 



