INSECTS. 
175 
few benumbed females, who abandon it on the approach 
of spring, and never return ; for Wasps never make use 
of the same nest for more than one season.” * 
Some Hymenopterous Insects excavate cells, for the 
habitation of their young, out of solid timber. The large 
and beautiful Violet Bee (Xylocopa violacea ) of Spain, for 
example, bores a cylindrical hole into a post to the depth 
of fifteen inches, the first inch being horizontal, and the 
rest perpendicularly upwards. Tho sawdust which accu- 
mulates from the action of her jaws, she stores up in a 
little heap, for future use. Having completed her tunnel, 
she lays an egg at the furthest extremity, gluing it to the 
wood. She then collects the farina of flowers, and, making 
it into a paste with honey, covers with it the new-laid 
egg, and fills a space of the tunnel of about an inch in 
length. 
Now the storo of sawdust comes into request. Grain 
by grain she carries it in, and, with her glutinous saliva, 
cements it in tho form of a ring to the tunnel wall, imme- 
diately under the food she has treasured up. When this 
has hardened, she carries in more grains, and cements 
them in a narrower ring to the former, proceeding thus 
till the whole space is occupied, and a transverse partition 
is formed of cemented sawdust, which completely seals up 
the egg and food in a closed chamber, and forms a floor 
for the attachment of a second egg. This she provides 
for and seals up also, and so proceeds till she has divided 
the tunnel into ten or twelve cells, each occupied by an 
egg, and sufficient food to meet the wants of the grub 
until its arrival at the winged state. 
* “ Insect Architecture,” 75 
