442 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



eight, is completed. The vacuities between the cells, 

 which are not placed in any regular order, some being 

 parallel to the wall, others perpendicular to it, and others 

 inclined to it at different angles, this laborious architect 

 fills up with the same material of which the cells are 

 composed, and then bestows upon the whole group a 

 common covering of coarser grains of sand. The form 

 of the whole nest, which when finished is a solid mass 

 of stone so hard as not to be easily penetrated with the 

 blade of a knife, is an irregular obiong of the same co- 

 lour as the sand, and to a casual observer more resem- 

 bling a splash of mud than an artificial structure. These 

 bees sometimes are more economical of their labour, 

 and repair old nests, for the possession of which they 

 have very desperate combats. One would have sup- 

 posed that the inhabitants of a castle so fortified might 

 defy the attacks of every insect marauder. Yet an Ich- 

 neumon and a beetle (Clerus apiarius, F.) both contrive 

 to introduce their eggs into the cells, and the larvae pro- 

 ceeding from them devour their inhabitants a . 



Other bees of the same family with that last described, 

 use different materials in the construction of their nests. 

 Some employ fine earth made into a kind of mortar with 

 gluten. Another (A. cceridescens, L.), as we learn from 

 De Geer, forms its nest of argillaceous earth mixed with 

 chalk, upon stone walls, and sometimes probably nidifi- 

 cates in chalk-pits. Apis bicornis, L. selects the hollows 

 of large stones for the site of its dwelling ; while others 

 prefer the holes in wood. 



The works thus far described require in general less 

 s Reaum. vi. 57-88. Man. Jp. Jug/, i. 170, 



