424 



HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



nected with those next it by slight joinings of wax. These 

 oval bodies are not, as you might suppose, the work of the 

 old bees, but the silken cocoons spun by the young larvee. 

 Some are closed at the upper extremity; others, which chiefly 

 occupy the lower combs, have this part open. The former 

 are those which yet include their immature tenants ; the latter 

 are the empty cases from which the young bees have escaped. 

 On the surface of the upper comb are seen several masses of 

 wax of a flattened spheroidal shape, and of very various di- 

 mensions: some above an inch, and others not a quarter of an 

 inch, in diameter; which, on being opened, are found to include 

 a number of larvse surrounded with a supply of pollen 

 moistened with honey. These, which are the true cells, are 

 chiefly the work of the female, which, after depositing her eggs 

 in them, furnishes them with a store of pollen and honey; and, 

 when this is consumed, supplies the larvas with a daily pro- 

 vision, as has been described in a former letter, until they are 

 sufficiently grown to spin the cocoons before spoken of. 

 Lastly, in all the corners of the combs, and especially in the 

 middle, we observe a considerable number of small goblet-like 

 vessels, filled with honey and pollen, which are not, as in the 

 case of the hive-bee, the fabrication of the workers, but are 

 chiefly the empty cocoons left by the larvae. It falls to the 

 workers, however, to cut off" the fragments of silk from the orifice 

 of the cocoon, which, after giving it a regular circular form, 

 they strengthen by a ring or elevated tube of wax made in a 

 different shape by different species; and to coat them in- 

 ternally with a lining of the same material. They even oc- 

 casionally construct honey-pots entirely of wax.^ 



The most curious circumstance in the construction of these 

 nests is the mode in which the bees transport the moss em- 

 ployed in forming the roof. When they have discovered a 

 parcel of this material conveniently situated upon the ground, 

 five or six insects place themselves upon it in a file, turning 

 the hinder part of their bodies towards the quarter to which 

 it is meant to be conveyed. The first takes a small portion, 

 and; with its jaws and fore-legs, as it were felts it together. 



1 Huher, Li?m. Trans. \i. 213— 298. 



