18 
BRITISH BEES. 
fence and offence, and forms a sting, supplied by glands 
with a very virulent poison, which the bee can inject 
into the wound it inflicts. It is not certain that this 
organ is used by the bee as an ovipositor, although it 
is evident it is its analogue. This brief description of 
the essential peculiarities of the family will, for the pre¬ 
sent, suffice. In the notice of the imago, I shall enlarge 
upon the general structure, and then particularize those 
portions of it which may facilitate further progress. 
The Egg .—Although the egg of the parent is the 
source of the origin of the bee, we cannot abruptly com¬ 
mence from this point, for the preliminary labours of 
the mother are indispensable to the evolution of its off¬ 
spring. This egg has to be placed in a suitable deposi¬ 
tory, together with the requisite food for the sustenance 
of the vermicide that will be disclosed from it. 
Instinct instructs the parent where and how to form 
the nidus for its egg. These depositories differ consi¬ 
derably in the several genera, but, as a general rule, 
they are tubes burrowed by the mother either in earth, 
sand, decaying or soft wood, branches of plants having 
a pith, the halm of grain, cavities already existing in 
many substances, and even within the shells of dead 
snails. These perforations are sometimes simple, and 
sometimes they have divergent and ramifying channels, 
Sometimes they are carefully lined with a silky mem¬ 
brane secreted by the insect, and sometimes they are 
hung with a tapestry of pieces of leaves, cut methodi¬ 
cally from plants, but some leave their walls entirely 
bare. All these particulars I shall have ample oppor¬ 
tunity to note in the special descriptions of the genera. 
I merely indicate them to show how various are the 
receptacles for the offspring of our bees. 
