had opportunities of observing its habits. The best account is that given by Reaumur, of which we shall therefore introduce an abridgement, premising that the insect is entirely of a black colour, the wings deeply tinted with violet, and the male having a reddish ring at the extremity of the antennæ.
"The mother-bee usually makes her appearance early in the year, as soon as winter is over. She may then be met with in gardens, visiting such walls as are covered with trees trained upon trellis work, in a warm sunny aspect. When once she has begun to make her appearance, she frequently returns, and during a long period; and she may always be known by her size, and her hum, which much resembles that of the Bombinatrices. The object of her earlier visits is to fix upon a piece of wood proper for her purposes. She usually selects the putrescent uprights of arbours, espaliers, or the props of vines; but sometimes she will attack garden seats, thick doors, and window shutters; the piece that she chooses is usually cylindrical, and perpendicular to the horizon. Her strong maxillæ are the instruments she employs in boring it; beginning on one side for a little way she points her course obliquely downwards, and then forwards in a direction parallel with its sides, till she has bored a tunnel of from twelve to fifteen inches in length, and seven or eight lines in diameter. A passage is left where she enters or first begins to bore, and another at the other end of the pipe. As the industrious animal proceeds in her employment, she clears away the wood that she detaches, throwing it out upon
