HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



367 



many insects ; and the regular villages of the beaver, by far 

 the most sagacious architect amongst quadrupeds, must yield 

 the palm to a wasp's nest. You will think me here guilty of 

 exaggeration, and that, blinded by my attachment to a 

 favourite pursuit, I am elevating the little objects, which I 

 wish to recommend to your study, to a rank beyond their 

 just claim. So far, however, am I from being conscious of 

 any such prejudice, that I do not hesitate to go further, and 

 assert that the pyramids of Egypt, as the work of man, are 

 not more wonderful for their size and solidity than are the 

 structures built by some insects. 



To describe the most remarkable of these is my present 

 object : and that some method may be observed, I shall in 

 this letter describe the habitations of insects living in a 

 state of solitude, and built each by a single architect ; and in 

 a subsequent one, those of insects living in societies, built 

 by the united labours of many. The former class may be 

 conveniently subdivided into habitations built by the parent 

 insect, not for its own use, but for the convenience of its 

 future young ; and those which are formed by the insect that 

 inhabits them for its own accommodation. To the first I 

 shall now call your attention. 



The solitary insects which construct habitations for their 

 future young without any view to their own accommodation, 

 chiefly belong to the order Hymenoptera, and are principally 

 different species of wild bees and wasps. Of these the most 

 simple are built by Colletes ^ succincta, fodiens^ &c. The situa- 

 tion which the parent bee chooses, is either the dry earth of 

 a bank, or the vacuities of stone walls cemented with earth 

 instead of mortar. Having excavated a cylinder about two 

 inches in depth, running usually in a horizontal direction, 

 the bee occupies it with three or four cells about half an inch 

 long, and one sixth broad, shaped like a thimble, the end of 

 one fitting into the mouth of another. The substance of 

 which these cells are formed is two or three layers of a silky 

 membrane, composed of a kind of glue secreted by the animal. 



1 Melitta*. a. K. 



