50 c 2 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



full two feet in diameter. When broken, the wax is ar- 

 ranged as in our hives, and the honey abundant 3 ." 



Humble-bees are the only tribe besides the hive-bee, 

 that in this part of the world construct nests by the united 

 labour of the society. The habitations composing them 

 are of a rude construction, and the streets are arranged 

 with little architectural regularity. The number of in- 

 habitants, too, is small, rarely exceeding two or three 

 hundred, and often not more than twenty. The nests 

 of some species, as of Apis lajjidaria, A. terresfo-is, &c. 

 are found under ground at the depth of a foot or more 

 below the surface ; but as the internal structure of these 

 does not essentially differ from that of the more singular 

 habitations of A. Muscorum, and as some of the subter- 

 ranean species occasionally adopt the same situation, I 

 shall confine my description to the latter. 



These nests, which do not exceed six or eight inches 

 in diameter, are generally found in meadows and pas- 

 tures, and sometimes in hedge-rows where the soil is en- 

 tangled with roots. The lower half occupies a cavity 

 in the soil, either accidentally found ready made, or ex- 

 cavated with great labour by the bees. The upper part 

 or dome of the nest is composed of a thick felted cover- 

 ing of moss, having the interior ceiling coated with a 

 thin roof of coarse wax for the purpose of keeping out 

 the wet. The entrance is in the lower part, and is ge- 

 nerally through a gallery or covered way, sometimes 

 more than a foot in length and half an inch in diameter, 

 by means of which the nest is more effectually concealed 

 •' Lindley in R. Military Chronicle, March 1815, 449, 



