The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware.

  • Smellie, William, 1740-1795.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie ; with an introduction and various additions and alterations intended to adapt it to the present state of knowledge by John Ware. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Each long hole or tube, accordingly, is only the outer walls of a house which is to consist of many chambers ranged one above another. A hole of about twelve inches in length she divides into ten or twelve separate apartments, each of which is about an inch high The roof of the lowest room is the floor of the second, and so on to the uppermost. Each floor is of about the thickness of a French crown. The floors or di- visions are composed of particles of wood cemented together by a glutinous substance from the animal's mouth. In mak- ing a floor, she commences with gluing an annular plate of wood-dust round the internal circumference of the cavity. To this plate she attaches a second, to the second a third, and to the third a fourth, till the whole floor is completed. The undermost cell requires only a roof, and this roof is a floor to the second, &,c. But these operations, though great, and seemingly superior to the powers of a creature so small, are not her only labour. Before roofing in the first cell, she fills it with a paste or pap, composed of the farina of flowers moistened with honey. The quantity of paste is equal to the dimensions of the cell, which is about an inch high, and half an inch in diameter. In this paste, which is to nourish ihe future worm, she de- posits an egg. Immediately after this operation, she begins to form a roof, which not only incloses the first cell, but serves as a floor to the second. The second cell she likewise fills with paste, deposits an egg, and then covers the whole with another roof. In this manner she proceeds, till she has divid- ed the whole tube into separate cells. A single tube fre- quently contains from ten to a dozen of these cells. When the cells are all inclosed, the business of this laborious bee is finished, and she takes no more charge of her future progeny. The attention and solicitude bestowed by many other animals, in rearing their young, are exerted after birth. But, in the wood-piercing bee, as well as in many other insects, this in- stinctive attachment is reversed. All her labours and all her cares are exerted before she either sees her offspring, or knows that they are to exist. But, after the description that has been given of her amazing operations, she will not be con- sidered as an unnatural mother. With astonishing industry and perseverance, she not only furnishes her young with safe and convenient lodgings, but lays up for them stores of provisions sufficient to support them till their final metamor- phosis into flies, when the new females perform the same al-