3*8 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



cies of wild-bees, of which we have in this country avast 

 number. Having first excavated a proper cell with a 

 dexterity and persevering labour never enough to be ad- 

 mired, they next deposit in it an egg, which they cover 

 with a mass of pollen or honey collected with unwearied 

 assiduity from a thousand flowers. As soon as the grub 

 is hatched, it finds itself enveloped in this delicious ban- 

 quet provided for it by the cares of a mother it is doom- 

 ed never to behold ; and so accurately is the repast pro- 

 portioned to its appetite and its wants, that as soon as 

 the whole is consumed it has no longer need of food ; it 

 clothes itself in a silken cocoon, becomes a pupa, and 

 after a deep sleep of a few days bursts from its cell an 

 active bee. 



No circumstance connected with the storge of insects, 

 is more striking; than the herculean and incessant labour 

 which it leads them cheerfully to undergo. Some of 

 these exertions are so disproportionate to the size of the 

 insect, that nothing short of ocular conviction could at- 

 tribute them to such an agent. A \wild bee or a Sphex, 

 for instance, will dig a hole in a hard bank of earth some 

 inches deep and five or six times its own size, and la-« 

 bour unremittingly at this arduous undertaking for se- 

 veral days, scarcely allowing itself a moment for eating 

 or repose. It will then occupy as much time in search- 

 ing for a store of food ; and no sooner is this task finish- 

 ed, than it will set about repeating the process, and be- 

 fore it dies will have completed five or six similar cells 

 or even more. If you would estimate this industry at its 

 proper value, you should reflect what kind of exertion it 

 would require in a man to dig in a few days out of hard 



