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fence and offence, and forms a sting, supplied by glandswith a very virulent poison, which the bee can injectinto the wound it inflicts. It is not certain that thisorgan is used by the bee as an ovipositor, although itis evident it is its analogue. This brief description ofthe essential peculiarities of the family will, for the pre-sent, suffice. In the notice of the imago, I shall enlargeupon the general structure, and then particularize thoseportions of it which may facilitate further progress.
The Egg .—Although the egg of the parent is thesource of the origin of the bee, we cannot abruptly com-mence from this point, for the preliminary labours ofthe mother are indispensable to the evolution of its off-spring. This egg has to be placed in a suitable deposi-tory, together with the requisite food for the sustenanceof the vermicide that will be disclosed from it.
Instinct instructs the parent where and how to formthe nidus for its egg. These depositories differ consi-derably in the several genera, but, as a general rule,they are tubes burrowed by the mother either in earth,sand, decaying or soft wood, branches of plants havinga pith, the halm of grain, cavities already existing inmany substances, and even within the shells of deadsnails. These perforations are sometimes simple, andsometimes they have divergent and ramifying channels,Sometimes they are carefully lined with a silky mem-brane secreted by the insect, and sometimes they arehung with a tapestry of pieces of leaves, cut methodi-cally from plants, but some leave their walls entirelybare. All these particulars I shall have ample oppor-tunity to note in the special descriptions of the genera.I merely indicate them to show how various are thereceptacles for the offspring of our bees.