Archive image from page 612 of Cuvier's animal kingdom arranged. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization cuviersanimalkin00cuvi Year: 1840 HYMENOPTERA. 601 habitations in societies of fifty or sixty, but sometimes two or three hundred individuals: the society is, however, broken up at the approach of winter [like that of the Wasps]. The males are distinguished by their small size, the mandibles narrower, bidendate, and bearded, and the body often differently coloured. The females are the largest, and have the mandibles spoon-shaped, as they are also in the neuters, w
Archive image from page 612 of Cuvier's animal kingdom arranged. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization cuviersanimalkin00cuvi Year: 1840 HYMENOPTERA. 601 habitations in societies of fifty or sixty, but sometimes two or three hundred individuals: the society is, however, broken up at the approach of winter [like that of the Wasps]. The males are distinguished by their small size, the mandibles narrower, bidendate, and bearded, and the body often differently coloured. The females are the largest, and have the mandibles spoon-shaped, as they are also in the neuters, which are intermediate in size between the two others. Reaumur and Huber have observed two varieties amongst the neuters, differing in size from the ordinary ones : according to the latter author, several of the workers which are produced in the spring, couple in June with males which are produced from the common parent, and soon afterwards deposit eggs, which produce only males, which fecundate the females which only appear towards the end of the summer, and which are destined to become the foundresses of fresh colonies in the following year ; all the rest perish. These females, which survive the winter, employ the first fine days in spring to commence their nest, which is formed in the earth, often at one or even two feet deep. One species, B. lapidaria, builds it on the surface of the ground, under stones. The cavi- ties in which these nests are formed, are vaulted with earth and moss, which the Bees card with their hind legs. A layer of rough wax lines the interior of the nest. Sometimes an opening is merely made into the bottom of the nest, but sometimes it is one or two feet long, and lined with moss. A layer of leaves lines the floor of the nest, on which the female deposits masses of brown wax, their inner spaces being destined to inclose the eggs and larvae. These larvae there live in society until the period when they are ready to change to pupae, when they separate, a
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