HYMEXOPTERA. 
57 
The old queen goes off with the firft fwarm, which 
makes it fo valuable, 
Carpenter-Bees . 
Thefe make a hole in rotten wood, into which they 
enter backwards, depofrt their eggs together with 
fome honey, clofe up the lodge^ and there the larva 
undergoes its change. 
Apis Centuncnlaris. 
Leaf-cutting bee ; of this there are feveral fpecles* 
all equally induffrious ; they dig into the ground, 
build nefts that have the form and fize of thimbles, 
inferted one within another ; others are no bigger 
than goofe quills. 
There meffs are compofed of pieces of leaves ; each 
fpecies of bee cuts into its own materials; fome the 
role-leaf, others the horfe-chefnut. A careful obser¬ 
ver may difcover rofe-tree leaves cut, as if with a 
pinking iron ; a circular piece is cut out, fit to be 
either the bottom or the lid of one of thefe neils : 
others it cuts out into ovals and femi-ovals, which 
form the fides of the neffs ; into each of which it de- 
pofits an egg with ready prepared vi&uals. The Bee 
cuts the leaf as it were at a ffroke. 
I have feen the Malabar nut fo cut. 
Each fingle neft looks like a bale of cloth in mi¬ 
niature* 
GENUS 
/ 
