438 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



trade of a clothier. Another numerous family would be 

 more properly compared to carpenters, boring with in- 

 credible labour out of the solid wood long cylindrical 

 tubes, and dividing them into various cells. Amongst 

 these, one of the most remarkable is the Apis molacea, L. 

 (Xylocopa, Latr.), a large species, a native of Southern 

 Europe, distinguished by beautiful wings of a deep violet 

 colour, and found commonly in gardens, in the upright 

 putrescent espaliers or vine-props of which, and occasion- 

 ally in the garden seats, doors and window-shutters, she 

 makes her nest. In the beginning of spring, after re- 

 peated and careful surveys, she fixes upon a piece of wood 

 suitable for her purpose, and with her strong mandibles 

 begins the process of boring. First proceeding obliquely 

 downwards, she soon points her course in a direction 

 parallel with the sides of the wood, and at length with 

 unwearied exertion forms a cylindrical hole or tunnel not 

 less than twelve or fifteen inches long; and half an inch 

 broad. Sometimes, where the diameter will admit of it, 

 three or four of these pipes, nearly parallel with each 

 other, are bored in the same piece. Herculean as this 

 task, which is the labour of several days, appears, it is 

 but a small part of what our industrious bee cheerfully 

 undertakes. As yet she has completed but the shell of 

 the destined habitation of her offspring ; each of which, 

 to the number of ten or twelve, will require a separate 

 and distinct apartment. How, you will ask, is she to 



ing a pupa, after having eaten the provision of pollen and honey with 

 which the parent bee had surrounded it. The vermicular shape, 

 however, of the masses with which the cases are surrounded, does 



not seem easily reconcileable with this supposition, unless they are 

 considered as the excrement of the larva. 



