434 
BEE. 
with great labour for the purpose. Among these 
the carpenter bee, Apis centuncularis, merits our at- 
tention for the perseverance with which it forms its 
cell, sometimes in the middle of the most solid kind 
of wood. These creatures having selected a piece 
of wood to their mind, which is frequently an up- 
right post, or espalier, begin their operations by 
boring perpendicularly into it, thus forming a tu- 
bular cavity of ten or twelve inches in length, and 
about the third of an inch in diameter. Weeks are 
often employed by the insect in completing this 
business, as she frequently bores three or four of 
these holes in one piece of wood, where the thick- 
ness will admit of it. The dust made by these 
workmen may be seen in little heaps near the place 
where they are carrying on their operations. When 
this tubular dwelling is properly finished, which is 
not till after the holes are divided into several sepa- 
rate apartments, the animal proceeds to line the 
whole with rose leaves rolled over each other ; and 
then deposits an egg in each division, carefully 
closing the apartment, after having provided a suf- 
ficient quantity of a paste, composed of the farina of 
flowers mixed with honey, for the young larva to 
feed on. This young maggot is so enclosed in the 
above-mentioned paste when first hatched, that it 
is obliged to eat itself a space to turn in, and scarce- 
ly gets tolerable room in its apartment till most of 
the food is devoured, and the included animal ready 
to pass into the chrysalis state. M. Keaumur ob- 
tained a piece of wood containing one of the habi- 
