HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



369 



The bee last described may be said to exercise the trade of 

 a clothier. Another numerous family would be more properly 

 compared to carpenters, boring with incredible labour out of 

 the solid wood long cylindrical tubes, and dividing them into 

 various cells. Amongst these, one of the most remarkable is 

 Xylocopa ^ violacea, a large species, a native of middle and 

 southern Europe, distinguished by beautiful wings of a deep 

 violet colour, and found commonly in gardens, in the upright 

 putrescent espaliers or vine-props of which, and occasionally 

 in the garden seats, doors, and window-shutters, she makes 

 her nest. In the beginning of spring, after repeated and 

 careful surveys, she fixes upon a piece of wood suitable for 

 her purpose, and with her strong mandibles begins the process 

 of boring. First proceeding obliquely downwards, she soon 

 points her course in a direction parallel with the sides of the 

 wood, and at length with unwearied exertion forms a cylin- 

 drical hole or timnel not less than twelve or fifteen inches 

 long and half an inch broad. Sometimes, where the diameter 

 will admit of it, three or four of these pipes, nearly parallel 

 with each other, are bored in the same piece. Herculean as 

 this task, which is the labour of several days, appears, it is 

 but a small part of what our industrious bee cheerfully under- 

 takes. As yet she has completed but the shell of the destined 

 habitation of her offspring ; each of which, to the number of 

 ten or twelve, will require a separate and distinct apartment. 

 How, you will ask, is she to form these? With what 

 materials can she construct the floors and ceilings? Why 

 truly God " doth instruct her to discretion and doth teach 

 her." In excavating her tunnel she has detached a large 

 quantity of fibres, which lie on the ground like a heap of saw- 

 dust. This material supplies all her wants. Having deposited 

 an egg at the bottom of the cylinder along with the requisite 

 store of pollen and honey, she next, at the height of about 

 three quarters of an inch (which is the depth of each cell). 



the provision of pollen and honey with which the parent bee had surrounded it. 

 The vermicular shape, however, of the masses with which the cases are sur- 

 rounded does not seem easily reconcileable with this supposition, unless they are 

 considered as the excrement of the larva. 

 1 Apis. **. d. 2. i8. K. 



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