INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



Lapidary-Bees. 



A bee still more common, perhaps, than the carder, 

 is the orange-tailed bee, or lapidary (Bombn.i lapi- 

 daria), readily known by its general black colour and 

 reddish orange tail. It builds its nest sometimes in 

 stony ground, but prefers a heap of stones such as 

 are gathered off grass fields, or are piled up near 

 quarries. Unlike the carder, the lapidary carries to its 

 nest bits of moss, which are very neatly arranged into 

 a regular oval. These insects associate in their 

 labours ; and they make honey with great industry. 

 The individuals of a nest are more numerous than 

 the carders, and likewise more pertinaciously vin- 

 dictive. About two years ago, we discovered a nest 

 of these bees at Comptou-Basset, in Wiltshire, in the 

 centre of a heap of limestone rubbish ; but owing 

 to the brisk defensive warfare of their legionaries, 

 we could not obtain a v>ew of the interior. It was 

 not even safe to approach within many yards of the 

 place, and we do not exaggerate when wc say that 

 several of them pursued us most pertinaciously about 

 a quarter of a mile *. 



Humble-Bees. 



The common humble-bee (Bombus terrestris) is 

 precisely similar in its economy to the two preceding 

 species, with this difference, that it forms its nest 

 underground like the common wasp, in an excavated 

 chamber, to which a winding passage leads, of from 

 one to two feet, and of diameter sufficient to allow 

 of two bees passing. The cells have no covering 

 beside the vault of the excavation and patches of 

 coarse wax similar to that of the carder-bee. 



