The 
their nefts in the holes of old walls and ruins 
of houfes, was a full fquare foot wide at the 
mouth, through which their making of wax, 
and other operations might be {een conveni~ 
ently. We fhould not therefore fear that the 
Bees when expofed thus openly will defert the 
hive, which is the only objection that one can 
make again{ft the propofed experiment. The 
fear of their flying away will be the lefs, as 
they will have placed their offspring there be- 
fore the operation, which they never after- 
wards relinquifh. If any one fhould fear left 
the Bees fhould be injured by the nocturnal 
cold, he might cover them at night with a 
larger hive or any other larger cover. And in 
the day time they might be put in fuch a place 
that they fhould not be expofed to the injuries 
of the heat or rain. 
I fhall now proceed to the hiftory of the 
male Bee; and here fhall firft briefly relate 
fome things of Humble Bees and their eggs. 
The Humble Bees, as far as I have obferved, 
do not build neits or live together, but in the 
winter; like moft other infects they abftain 
from food and motion, and therefore they are 
properly folitary Bees. I have feen, however, 
that about the end of May, or fooner, fome 
tew male Humble Bees, and one female which 
is of a larger fize, gather together in the paf- 
tures and corn-fields about Amfterdam. The 
place they choofe to build in is between the ftalks 
of corn or grafs, and is not deep under the fur- 
face, but only a little hole burrowed under the 
grafs, in which hole there is found either na- 
turally or heaped together by them, a tender 
foft fort of down or mofs, on a fall part of 
which, formed in a kind of bed, with brown 
wax ora flexible matter like it, the female lays 
her eges. With this matter alfo the eggs them- 
felves are all fealed up underneath and on the 
fides. But in what manner thefe eggs are de- 
pofited there, and how the young and tender 
Worms creep out of them, and whether they 
eat this fubftance, I have not yet learned from 
experiments. I have lately however, namely, 
on the 22d of June this year found a perfect 
neft, in one fide, Tab. XXVI. fig. 1. 2, of 
which there were eighteen cells, but in the 
other 4 only eight. Between thefe was -feen 
one cell entirely empty ¢; and there occured in 
feveral places here and there d ¢ f fome parti- 
cles of the fame kind of waxy matter: in this 
the eggs were all clofed up. I fhall now di- 
ftinctly defcribe what I could obferve upon this 
occafion. I found one female and feveral males 
in this neft, all which fhewed by their hum- 
ming and their running anxioufly up and down, 
that my curiofity was by no means pleafing to 
them. When I afterwards carefully viewed 
eighteen cells, and opened them by cutting off 
the piece g, I found them all full of little 
Worms, which were to be transformed into 
Nymphs 6. Upon obferving the ftruGture and 
fubftance of thefe cells, I found that they 
were all compofed of threads or filaments, and 
were of an oval figure, and of a colour fome- 
Hd 8 1/0 RY 
on UNS he Es) 
what approaching to yellow. This I looked 
upon as a ftrong argument that thefe little cells” 
were not made by the Humble Bees, but by 
the Worms themfelves: nay, a certain, though 
209 
“not very exact order, was obferved in their com- 
pofition, fince one cell was placed in the mid- 
dle and furrounded by five others. They were 
all faftened together in the fame manner in 
which the Silk-Worm is accuftomed to affix 
itfelf to paper or wax, by the help of her 
threads. And one of them was more elevated, 
another more depreffed; on the lower part 
where they refted on the down or mofs, they 
had contracted fome dirt or mouldinefs, by 
reafon of the dampnefs of the foil. I drew 
fome of the Worms that lay on the infide out 
of them and left others. And I found that 
thofe which I had left in their cells, were in 
fome days changed into Nymphs, and thefe 
afterwards in two or three weeks into Humble- 
Bees: thefe however did not creep out of their 
webs, but died in them, together with the 
Worms that I had drawn from thence. The 
eight cells of the other fide did not appear to 
be made of this waxy matter: their figure was 
likewife lefs regular and orderly, and I there= 
fore imagine they were made by the Humble 
Bees themfelves ; but as I thought that honey 
or Bee-bread might be found inthem, I indeed 
greatly admired, when I found only Worms of 
various fize, andall clofedup. In each of two 
of thefe cells I found two large Wormsz, and in 
another only one 4, but this was much larger. 
Thefe Worms taken from thence and put into 
a cornet of paper, covered themfelves with a 
web of an oval figure, and in the mean time 
difcharged a large quantity of brown regular 
excrements, divided into equal parts, and very 
like the matter wherein they were depofited. 
In.another cell I found a waxen partition , and 
in one of the apartments thus feparated were 
two {mall Worms, and in the other two that 
were fomewhat larger. I likewife afterwards 
found in another cell three Worms m, and in 
another four. From what has been here faid, 
it is fufficiently evident how greatly this coha- 
bitation of the Humble Bees is different not 
only from that of the common Bees, but alfo 
from the nefts of the Hornets and Wafps, 
which are made by thefe infe&ts themfelves, 
and are admirably conftruéted. But what feems 
to me moft wonderful of all is, that thefe 
Worms of the Humble-Bees which fhould {till 
be in a ftate of nourifhing, are really fealed up 
and covered with the waxy fubftance. Per- 
haps it may not be improper to conclude from 
hence, that thefe Worms ufe that matter 
wherein I found them covered, in the place of 
other food, and that the parent Humble Bees 
when the firft quantity is confumed, again lay 
another new parcel over them. This is in 
fome meafure the cafe in fome Worms, which 
being depofited in cheefe, fleth, fruit and plants, 
lie as it were covered up in their food or nou-. 
tifhment; for thofe protuberances and knots, 
wherewith the whole infect is covered, rife 
Poh hi a dag 
