418 



INSECTS. 



[Chap. XII. 



selves in the vicinity 1 of its nests. These are of such 

 ample dimensions, that when suspended from a branch, 

 they often measure upwards of six feet in length. 2 



Bees. — Bees of several species and genera, some un- 

 provided with stings, and some in size scarcely exceed- 

 ing a house-fly, deposit their honey in hollow trees, or 

 suspend their combs from a branch. The spoils of their 

 industry form one of the chief resources of the uncivi- 

 lised Veddahs, who collect the wax in the upland forests, 

 to be bartered for arrow points and clothes in the low- 

 lands. 3 I have never heard of an instance of persons 

 being attacked by the bees of Ceylon, and hence the 

 natives assert, that those most productive of honey are 

 destitute of stings. 



The Carpenter Bee. — The operations of one of the 

 most interesting of the tribe, the Carpenter bee 4 , 1 have 

 watched with admiration from the window of the Colo- 



1 It ought to be remembered in the bases of several together, 

 travelling in the forests of Ceylon whereby they assume the hexagonal 

 that sal volatile applied imme- shape, whereas, if constructed 

 diately is a specific for the sting of separately, he thought each single 

 a wasp, cell would be circular. See Proc. 



2 At the January (1839) meet- Ent. Soc. vol. iii. p. 16. 



ing of the Entomological Society, 3 A gentleman connected with 



Mr. Whitehouse exhibited portions the department of the Survey or- 



of a wasps' nest from Ceylon, be- General writes to me that he 



tvveen seven and eight feet long measured a honey-comb which he 



andtwofeetin diameter, and showed found fastened to the overhanging 



that the construction of the cells branch of a small tree in the forest 



was perfectly analogous to those of near Adam's Peak, and found it 



the hive bee, and that when con- nine links of his chain or about 



nected each has a tendency to six feet in length and a foot in 



assume a circular outline. In one breadth where it was attached to 



specimen where there were three the branch, but tapering towards 



cells united the outer part was cir- the other extremity. " It was a 



cular, whilst the portions common single comb with a layer of cells 



to the three formed straight walls, on either side, but so weighty that 



From this Singhalese nest Mr. the branch broke by the strain." 



"Whitehouse demonstrated that the 4 Xylocopa tenuisca/pa, Westw. ; 



wasps at the commencement of Another species found in Ceylon is 



their comb proceed slowly, forming the X. latipes, Drury. 



