Insect architecture / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insect architecture / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    86/444 page 68
    > + tat, Sate) * a 58 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. off the covering, as is done. also by ants in the same cifcumstances. ‘The instinct with which they is truly wonderful. It is no less so, that these cocoons are by no means: useless’ when thus un- tenanted, for they subsequently serve for honey-pots, and are indeed the only store-cells in the nest. For this purpose the edge of the cell is repaired and strengthened with a ring of wax. Qi = Breeding Cells. ‘The true breeding-cells are contained in several amorphus masses of brown-coloured wax, varying in dimensions, but of a somewhat flat and_ globular shape. On opening any of these, a number of eggs or grubs are found, on whose account. the mother bee has collected the masses of wax, which also con- tain a supply of pollen moistened with honey, for their subsistence. 4 The number of eggs or grubs found in one sphe- roid of wax varies from three to thirty, and the bees in a whole nest seldom exceed sixty.. ‘There are three sizes of bees, of which the females are the largest; but neither these nor the. males are, as in the case of the ‘hive-bee, exempt from labour. The females, indeed, always found the nests, since they alone survive the winter, all the rest perishing with live in harmony together.
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