INSECTS. 141 
built in the sand or gravel. Those of other species are 
attached to various objects (Fig. 178). The sand, wood, 
and paper wasps are other familiar forms, 
NotTEe.—The wasps live in temporary societies composed of males, 
females, and neuters or workers. The sting of the latter is poisonous. 
The males die at the approach of winter, the females hibernating. In 
spring their nests, composed of ground vegetable matter or sand, are 
formed, and the young reared, The first brood are neuters, and assist 
in building a nest for the others ; finally, in the autumn, a third genera- 
tion is produced, composed of males and females, the nest now contain- 
ing perhaps one hundred cells. 
Carpenter-Bees.—Among the bees, which constitute 
the highest forms of the Hymenoptera, the carpenter-bees 
(Xylocopa) are the giants. They bore tunnels in solid wood 
at the rate of one quarter 
to one half an inch a day. 
In the Virginia carpen- 
ter-bee the entrance is at 
first against, then follows 
the grain of the wood, the 
tunnel often being from 
one to one and a half feet 
in length. This is divided 
off into cells (Fig. 179), 
each provided with its 
pollen and egg; the par- 
titions in the tunnel being 
formed of the powdered 
dust formed in cutting 
the tunnel. The larve z 
feed upon the pollen. Fic. 179.—Carpenter-bee, showing 
Honey-Bees ( Apia- eggs, pollen-heaps, and partitions. 
ria).—These insects (Fig. 
180) are of three kinds—queens, workers, and males. 
They live in communities of sometimes 20,000 individuals. 
The cells are formed of wax secreted by the workers, and 
