INSECTS. 



175 



few benumbed females, who abandon it on the approach 

 of spring, and never return ; for Wasps never make use 

 of the same nest for more than one season." *>X 



Some Hymenopterous Insects excavate cells, for the 

 habitation of their young, out of solid timber. The large 

 and beautiful Violet Bee (Xylocopa violaced) of Spain, for 

 example, bores a cylindrical hole into a post to the depth 

 of fifteen inches, the first inch being horizontal, and the 

 rest perpendicularly upwards. The sawdust which accu- 

 mulates from the action of her jaws, she stores up in a 

 little heap, for future use. Having completed her tunnel, 

 she lays an egg at the furthest extremity, gluing it to the 

 wood. She then collects the farina of flowers, and, making 

 it into a paste with honey, covers with it the new-laid 

 egg, and fills a space of the tunnel of about an inch in 

 length. 



Now the store of sawdust comes into request. Grain 

 by grain she carries it in, and, with her glutinous saliva, 

 cements it in the form of a ring to the tunnel wall, imme- 

 diately under the food she has treasured up. When this 

 has hardened, she carries in more grains, and cements 

 them in a narrower ring to the former, proceeding thus 

 till the whole space is occupied, and a transverse partition 

 is formed of cemented sawdust, which completely seals up 

 the egg and food in a closed chamber, and forms a floor 

 for the attachment of a second egg. This she provides 

 for and seals up also, and so proceeds till she has divided 

 the tunnel into ten or twelve cells, each occupied by an 

 egg, and sufficient food to meet the wants of the grub 

 until its arrival at the winged state. 



* " Insect Architecture," 75 



