HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 447 



Yet this is what our little bee invariably does. So far 

 are human art and reason excelled by the teaching of 

 the Almighty*. 



Other insects besides bees construct habitations of dif- 

 ferent kinds for their young, as various species of Sphex, 

 ScarabaiuS) &c, whi^h deposit their eggs in cylindrical 

 excavations that become the abode of the future larva?. 

 In the procedures of most of these, nothing worth par- 

 ticularizing occurs ; but one species called by Reaumur 

 the mason- wasp, (Odynerus muraria, Latr.) referred to 

 in a former letter, works upon so singular a plan, that it 

 would be improper to pass it over in silence, especially 

 as these nests may be found in this country in most sandy 

 banks exposed to the sun. This insect bores a cylindri- 

 cal cavity from two to three inches deep, in hard sand 

 which its mandibles alone would be scarcely capable of 

 penetrating, were it not provided with a slightly gluti- 

 nous liquor which it pours out of its mouth, that, like the 

 vinegar with which Hannibal softened the Alps, acts 

 upon the cement of the sand, and renders the separation 

 of the grains easy to the double pickaxe with which our 

 little pioneer is furnished. But the most remarkable 

 circumstance is the mode in which it disposes of the ex- 

 cavated materials. Instead of throwing them at random 

 on a heap, it carefully forms them into little oblong pel- 

 lets, and arranges them round the entrance of the hole 

 so as to form a tunnel, which, when the excavation is 

 completed, is often not less than two or three inches in 

 length. For the greater part of its height this tunnel is 

 upright, but towards the top it bends into a curve, al- 



a Reanm. vi. 971-24. Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 157. Apis **. c. 2. x. 



