2G6 
FOREIGN BEES. 
had opportunities of observing its habits. The best 
account is that given by Reaumur, of which we shall 
therefore introduce an abridgement, premising that 
the insect is entirely of a black colour, the wings 
deeply tinted with violet, and the male having a 
reddish ring at the extremity of the antennae. 
“ The mother-bee usually makes her appearance 
early in the year, as soon as winter is over. She may 
then be met with in gardens, visiting such walls as are 
covered with trees trained upon trellis work, in a 
warm sunny aspect. When once she has begun to 
make her appearance, she frequently returns, and 
during a long period ; and she may al ways be known 
by her size, and her hum, which much resembles that 
of the Bombinalrices. The object of her earlier visits 
is to fix upon a piece of wood proper for her purposes. 
She usually selects the putrescent uprights of arbours, 
espaliers, or the props of vines ; but sometimes she 
will attack garden seats, thick doors, and window 
shutters ; the piece that she chooses is usually cylind- 
rical, and perpendicular to the horizon. Her strong 
maxillae are the instruments she employs in boring 
it ; beginning on one side for a little way she points 
her course obliquely downwards, and then forwards 
in a direction parallel with its sides, till she has bored 
a tunnel of from twelve to fifteen inches in length, 
and seven or eight lines in diameter. A passage is 
left where she enters or first begins to bore, and 
another at the other end of the pipe. As the indus- 
trious animal proceeds in her employment, she clears 
away the wood that she detaches, throwing it out upon 
