a bon vivant, seeks a solitary cell or hole where like a hermit it sits and leads apparently about as useless an existence. But meanwhile strange processes are going on beneath the skin; and after a few convulsive struggles the back splits open, and out wriggles the chrysalis, a gorgeous, mummy-like form, its body adorned with golden and silvery spots. Hence the word chrysalis (Fig. 14, b), from the Greek, meaning golden, while the Latin word pupa, meaning a baby or doll, is indicative of its youth. In this state it hangs suspended to a twig or other object; while the silk worm, and others of its kind, previous to moulting, or casting their skins, spin a silken cocoon, which envelops and protects the chrysalis.

15. Imago or adult Butterfly.

At the given time, and after the body of the adult has fully formed beneath the chrysalis skin, there is another moult, and the butterfly, with baggy, wet wings, creeps out. The body dries, the skin hardens, the wings expand, and in a few moments, sometimes an hour, the butterfly (Fig. 15) proudly sails aloft, the glory and pride of the insect world.

We shall see in the ensuing chapters how varied are the larvæ and pupæ of insects, and under what different guises insects live in their early stages.

Larva, pupa, and adult of a Leaf Beetle (Galeruca).

OUR COMMON INSECTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE HOME OF THE BEES.

The history of the Honey bee, its wonderful instincts, its elaborate cells and complex economy, have engrossed the attention of the best observers, even from the time of Virgil, who sang of the Ligurian bee. The literature of the art of bee-keeping is already very extensive. Numerous bee journals and manuals of bee-keeping testify to the importance of this art, while able mathematicians have studied the mode of formation of the hexagonal cells,[1] and physiologists have investigated the intricate problems of the mode of generation and development of the bee itself.

In discussing these difficult questions, we must rise from the study of the simple to the complex, remembering that—

"All nature widens upward. Evermore
The simpler essence lower lies:
More complex is more perfect—owning more
Discourse, more widely wise."

and not forget to study the humbler allies of the Honey bee. We shall, in observing the habits and homes of the wild bees, gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of the hive.

The great family of bees is divided into social and solitary species. The social kinds live in nests composed of numerous cells in which the young brood are reared. These cells vary in form from those which are quite regularly hexagonal, like those of the Hive bee, to those which are less regularly six-sided, as in the stingless bee of the tropics (Melipona), until in the Humble bee the cells are isolated and cylindrical in form.

Before speaking of the wild bees, let us briefly review the life of the Honey bee. The queen bee having wintered over with many workers, lays her eggs in the spring, first in the worker, and, at a later period, in the drone-cells. Early in the summer the workers construct the large, flask-shaped queen-cells, which are placed on the edge of the comb, and in these the queen larvæ are fed with rich and choice food. The old queen deserts the nest, forming a new colony. The new-born queen takes her marriage flight high in the air with a drone, and on her return undertakes the management of the hive, and the duty of laying eggs. When the supply of queens is exhausted, the workers destroy the drones. The first brood of workers live about six weeks in summer, and then give way to a new brood. The queens, according to Von Berlepsch, are known to live five years, and during their whole life lay more than a million eggs.

In the tropics, the Honey bee is replaced by the Meliponas and Trigonas. They are minute, stingless bees, which store up honey and live in colonies often of immense extent. The cells of Melipona are hexagonal, nearly approaching in regularity those of the Hive bee, while the honey cells are irregular, being much larger cavities, which hold about one-half as much honey as a cell of the Humble bee. "Gardner, in his travels, states that many species of Melipona build in the hollow trunks of trees, others in banks; some suspend their nests from the branches of trees, whilst one species constructs its nest of clay, it being of large size." (F. Smith.)

In a nest of the coal-black Trigona (Trigona carbonaria), from eastern Australia, Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museum, found from four hundred to five hundred dead workers, but no females. The combs were arranged precisely similar to those of the common wasp. The number of honey-pots which were placed at the foot of the nest was two hundred and fifty. Mr. Smith inclines to the opinion that the hive of Trigona contains several prolific females, as the great number of workers can only be thus explained, and M. Guérin found six females in a nest of the Tawny-footed Melipona (M. fulvipes).

At home, our nearest ally of the true Honey bee, is the Humble bee (Bombus), of which over forty species are known to inhabit North America.

The economy of the Humble bee is thus: the queen awakens in early spring from her winter's sleep under leaves or moss, or in the last year's nest, and selects a nesting place, generally in an abandoned nest of a field-mouse, or beneath a stump or sod, and "immediately," according to Mr. F. W. Putnam,[2] "collects" a small amount of pollen mixed with honey, and in this deposits from seven to fourteen eggs, gradually adding to the pollen mass until the first brood is hatched. She does not wait, however, for one brood to be hatched before laying the eggs of another, but, as soon as food enough has been collected, she lays the eggs for a second. The eggs are laid, in contact with each other, in one cavity of the mass of pollen, with a part of which they are slightly covered. They are very soon developed; in fact, the lines are nowhere distinctly drawn between the egg and the larva, the larva and pupa, and again between the latter and the imago; a perfect series, showing this gradual transformation of the young to the imago can be found in almost every nest.

15. Cell and Eggs of Bombus.

"As soon as the larvæ are capable of motion and commence feeding, they eat the pollen by which they are surrounded, and, gradually separating, push their way in various directions. Eating as they move, and increasing in size quite rapidly, they soon