440 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



collected but with long toil, and that a considerable in- 

 terval must be spent in agglutinating the floors of each, 

 it will be very obvious to you that the last egg in the last 

 cell must be laid many days after the first. We are cer- 

 tain, therefore, that the first egg will become a grub, and 

 consequently a perfect bee, many days before the last. 

 What then becomes of it ? you will ask. It is impossible 

 that it should make its escape through eleven superincum- 

 bent cells without destroying the immature tenants ; and 

 it seems equally impossible that it should remain patiently 

 in confinement below them until they are all disclosed. 

 This dilemma our heaven-taught architect has provided 

 against. With forethought never enough to be admired 

 she has not constructed her tunnel with one opening only, 

 but at the further end has pierced another orifice, a kind 

 of back-door, through which the insects produced by the 

 first-laid eggs successively emerge into day. In fact, all 

 the young bees, even the uppermost, go out by this road ; 

 for, by an exquisite instinct, each grub, when about to 

 become a pupa, places itself in its cell with its head down- 

 wards, and thus is necessitated, when arrived at its last 

 state, to pierce its cell in this direction 3 . 



Ceratina albilabris of Spinola, who has given an inter- 

 esting account of its manners, (Prosopis, F., Melitta *. b. 

 Kirby,) forms its cell upon the general plan of the bee 

 just described, but, more economical of labour, chooses a 

 branch of briar or bramble, in the pith of which she ex- 

 cavates a canal about a foot long and one line, or some- 

 times more, in diameter, with from eight to twelve cells 



. .? Reaum. vi. 39-50. Mon, Ap. Angl. i. 189, Apis * * *. 2, (i. 



