THE INSECT WORLD. 



411 



Fig. 470. 



\\\ \ 



small cells, each containing a supply of food sufficient for a 

 single larva. The mother bee constructs a cell, fills it with a 

 mixture of pollen and honey, and 

 lays an egg in it. Then she closes 

 up the chamber, and her work as 

 to this particular larv^a is com- 

 pleted. When the egg hatches, 

 the larva finds a food supply im- 

 mediately at hand sufficient to 

 bring it to maturity. When it is 

 fully grown it changes to a pupa, 

 and eventually to an adult, which 

 then makes its way from the earth- 

 en home into the sunlight. The 

 mother bee having completed one 

 cell, at once begins the construc- 

 tion of another, and thus the 

 work is continued until the supply 

 of eggs is exhausted. The open 

 face of sand- or clay-banks is a 

 favorite place for these insects, and 

 sometimes they build their nests 

 together in great numbers. 



The long-tongued bees are so 

 called because the ligula or glossa 

 is extended into a flexible ribbon- 

 like structure, ringed but not seg- 

 mented, set with circles of long 

 hair, and frequently tipped with a 

 little button-like structure. This 

 enables the insect to reach the 

 honey in deep flowers like the 

 clovers, and in fact there are only 

 certain bumble-bees with a tongue 

 long enough to reach the nectaries 

 of the red clover flowers ; hence 



they are entirely dependent upon these for pollination. Destroy 

 the bumble-bees, and no red clover-seed can be obtained. It is a 

 suggestive fact that in many localities where ruthless war is waged 



Burrow of Andrena. showing cells in 

 order of completion: the first at iz.the 

 last at y, in which an egg has just been 

 laid. 



