THE ODYNERI. 
229 
beyond description. The work was constantly going on, and old 
and young individuals were occupied either in just commencing 
to hollow out the soil or in closing up and finishing their labours. 
In some spots the insects were working hard at victualling their 
cells, and had completed a curious gallery which projected in front 
of the soil for more than an inch, like a tube. This tube was slightly 
curved, and was made up of little flat pieces or cylindrical morsels 
of earth placed in circles one over and in front of the others ; 
small spaces being left in the walls, of the tube, which gave it a 
lace-like look, but without admitting the rain. These vestibules 
are excessively fragile, and fall to pieces when they are touched, 
but the insects crawl into them without doing any damage. These 
singular entrances to the galleries and cells last as long as the 
victualling goes on, but when everything is finished inside, and 
the eggs are laid, the Odynerus breaks up its fragile vestibule and 
thus hides the entrance to its nest most perfectly. 
We broke away the earth which formed the bank here and 
there, and exposed several cells which were just below the soil, 
and many of them werfe more or less perfect. In one place a 
gallery was noticed to form the entry of two, three, or four cells, 
and in another of only one cell ; but all the little chambers were 
provisioned with the same sort of insect, namely, the green larva 
of a weevil (Phy tonus variabilis ), and there were fifteen or sixteen 
of them in each cell. The larvae were intact in most of the cells, 
but then only the egg of the Odynerus could be found ; while in 
others the provisions had been partly consumed, for the larva had 
been hatched, and had increased in size at the expense of its 
victims. The shape of the larva is short and rather oblong. 
In the engraving some of the vestibular tubes will be noticed 
on the right hand, and an Odynerus will be seen crawling into one ; 
other perfect insects may be observed in different positions. On 
the left hand there are two cells exposed in section, and in each 
there is a larva with a crowd of its victims upon it. All the 
Odyneri finish their particular duty by the end of June, and 
die; and such a bank as we have described presents no external 
traces of the wonderful insect work that has gone on within ; but 
inside the larvae are living, eating, and growing, down in the dark 
and far away from danger. When they have consumed all their 
