598 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



SO as to form alternate bands ; but each dark line represents a 

 distinct and well-marked ridge, and each ridge is evidently the 

 result of an addition made to the cell. 



Here, then, we have a clew to the manner in which the insect 

 builds its curious home. The cells at the upper part of the nest 

 were originally in the same unfinished state as those at the lower 

 extremity. The insect made a tolerably deep cell, laid an egg 

 therein, and then proceeded to lay the foundation of other cells, 

 placing an egg in each. 



When, however, she has formed the third or fourth cell, the 

 eggs in the first and second chambers have been hatched into 

 larvse, and need to be fed ; so the mother insect has now to sus- 

 pend her architectural labors, and to divide her time between the 

 erection of fresh cells and the feeding of the larvse in those which 

 were first made. Soon, however, her labors become more oner- 

 ous and more complicated. The larvse or grubs which inhabited 

 the first two or three cells have grown so rapidly that they are 

 fast becoming too large for their pendent cradles. Their cells 

 must therefore be enlarged to suit the increased dimensions of the 

 inhabitants. This also is done, each addition being marked by 

 the ridge which has been already mentioned. 



Thus, then, the hard-worked mother insect is forced to engage 

 in three distinct labors, namely, the building of new cells, the en- 

 largement of existing cells, and the nurture of the larvse. A 

 short reference to the illustration will now give the reader a clear 

 idea of the cell group. Above is a series of completed cells, each 

 occupied by a full-grown larva, one of which is being fed by the 

 mother insect, and below is a series of incomplete cells, each of 

 which has received an egg, but neither of which is fit to sustain 

 the weight of the larvse. If, however, the nest had been allowed 

 to remain in the forest, instead of being carried off to the British 

 Museum, the five lower cells would have been completed like 

 their more perfect predecessors above. 



The observant reader will probably have noticed that from the 

 mouths of several cells a scoop-like projection is seen to issue. 

 These projections have been faithfully rendered by the draughts- 

 man, although they denote a certain imperfection in the speci- 

 men. They are evidently the result of hard usage, and show that 

 part of a completed cell has been broken away. As is often the 

 case, the fracture has its value, inasmuch as it shows that the nor- 

 mal form of the cell is hexagonal, and that the angles are quite 



