AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 293 



injured in the hole, however long the interval before the egg 

 hatches, the disclosed larva is sure of a sufficiency of fresh 

 and wholesome nutriment. — To prevent the possibility of any 

 injury to its egg from the motions or voracity of this living 

 prey, the wasp is careful to pack the whole so closely, each 

 grub being coiled above the other in a series of rings, and to 

 consolidate the earth so firmly above them, that they have not 

 the slightest power of motion.^ — Those which select more 

 powerful caterpillars, or revenge the injuries of their insect 

 brethren by devoting spiders to the destruction they have so 

 often caused, take care to sting them in such a manner as, 

 without killing them outright, will incapacitate them from 

 doing any injury. 



Zeal and activity in providing for the well-being of their 

 future progeny, not inferior to what are exhibited by the tribe 

 of Ichneumons, Sphecina^, and mason-wasps, though less 

 cruelly exerted, are also shown by various species of wild 

 bees, of which we have in this country a great number. 

 Having first excavated a proper cell with a dexterity and 

 persevering labour never enough to be admired, they next de- 

 posit in it an egg, which they cover with a mass of pollen or 

 honey collected with unwearied assiduity from a thousand 

 flowers. As soon as the grub is hatched, it finds itself enve- 

 loped in this delicious banquet provided for it by the cares of 

 a mother it is doomed never to behold ; and so accurately is 

 the repast proportioned to its appetite and its wants, that as 

 soon as the whole is consumed it has no longer need of food ; 

 it clothes itself in a silken cocoon, becomes a pupa, and after 

 a deep sleep of a few days bursts from its cell an active bee. 



A considerable number of wild bees, however (those of the 

 genera Nomada, Melecta, kc.) being unprovided with an ap- 

 paratus for collecting pollen, save themselves not only this 

 labour but also that of excavating cells, and gliding into those 

 in which their more industrious brethren have deposited their 

 eggs and the necessary supply of pollen moistened with honey 



1 Reaum, vi. 252. 



2 By this term I would distinguish the tribe of Fossores of Latreille, which 

 the French call Wasp- Ichneumons, and which form the Linnean genus Sphevy 

 divisible into several families as Sphecidce, Pompilidcs, Bembecidce, &c. 



u a 



