176 ZOOLOGY. 
mouth of their cell. The fecundated females survive the winter, and each 
commences a new colony, building cells, depositing eggs, and feeding the 
young, until these are old enough to take part in the labors of the establish- 
ment, which is about a month from the time the eggs are laid. Two or three 
broods are raised successively from the same set of cells during a season. 
The nests of Vespa may be seen upon trees (where they are sometimes from 
twelve to eighteen inches in diameter), or under the projecting parts of 
houses. The small American species known as “yellow jackets,” build 
under ground; and the “ paper-wasp,” Polistes fuscata, attaches its comb 
(with the mouth of the cells downwards) to the branch of a tree, to the 
shelving parts of houses, or beneath a stone which has a cavity under it. 
Polistes (fig. 20), Vespa vulgaris (fig. 21), Vespa crabro (fig. 22). A few 
species of Polistes collect stores of honey. 
Fam. 18. Andrenide. Tn this family, which is allied to the bees in form, 
there are only males and females. They aresolitary; the female digs a hole 
in the ground where she deposits her eggs and a stock of paste made of 
pollen and honey, the hole being afterwards closed. 
Fam. 19. Apide (pl. 79, figs. 10-18). The family of the bees contains 
various groups differing in their character and habits. Xylocopa (X. 
violacea, fig. 14) bores passages in wood in which the young are placed 
with a quantity of pollen paste. In the United States, XY. victima bores in| 
the lower surface or edge of white pine structures, particularly about 
houses.. The species of Bombus (figs. 10, 18) known as bumble bees, make 
their nests under ground, in fields and pastures. The females (which are 
not restricted in number) assist the neuters in working. The colony does 
not remain together in the winter. JLegachile (fig. 12 a, male; 6, female). 
Nomada (fig. 15) is distinguished by its bright colors, and Hucera (fig. 16) 
by its long antenne. 
Apis mellifica (fig. 18 a, female; 6, male; c, worker) is the common 
hive bee. The male (or drone) is somewhat larger than the workers, 
it is without a sting, the eyes meet upon the top of the head, the posterior 
tarsi have the basal articulation lengthened, and not square, as in the 
neuters, the thorax and abdomen are less distinctly separated, and the 
wings are longer than in the female and neuter. There may be from six or 
~seven hundred to two thousand males in a hive, but this number is not in 
proportion to the other inmates. The females have the wings abbreviated, 
and the abdomen lengthened and provided with a curved sting, that of the 
workers being straight. The antenne and feet are paler than in the 
workers. 
Bees collect honey, pollen, and propolis, the young being fed with a 
mixture of the two former, whilst the latter (which is a mixture of one part 
wax to four of resin) is used to stop crevices and make repairs. The wax 
is a secretion between the segments of the lower side of the abdomen of the 
workers, where it appears in the form of small scales. 
When accident or death deprives a hive of its queen, great confusion 
follows, but in a few hours several cells containing worker larve two or 
three days old are enlarged, and these young are supplied with the peculiar 
380 
