Bees and wasps of a countless number of species abound in every region
of the continent. Some build their habitations, composed of a papery
substance, attached to the under side of the broad leaves of the tucuma
and other palms. Others, again, form them in hollow trees, or among
their roots in the earth. Many build in houses, or pierce their mud
walls till they look as if riddled with shot. Others make holes in the
ground, especially in sandy places. Others, again, construct their
habitations of clay, and fasten them to the boughs of trees or to
buildings. There are, indeed, mason bees, carpenter bees, and miner
bees and wasps.
Watch the little, pale green bombex, or sand-wasp, at work, throwing out
with its fore-feet jets of sand from the hole it is forming in the
sloping bank. In a wonderfully short time the female miner has formed a
gallery two or three inches in length. Out she backs, making a few
turns round the entrance to admire her work--or, probably, to take note
of the locality--and then away she flies. She may be absent for a few
minutes, or perhaps for an hour, according to her success in hunting.
At length back she comes with a big fly in her grasp, benumbed by her
sting. She carries it in, lays an egg in the body, which will serve as
food for the soft footless grub soon to be hatched, and then closing the
entrance, sets to work to form a new nursery like the first, which she
will furnish in the same careful manner. It is curious how she can find
her way back, for often she has to go half a mile before she can find a
fly to suit her purpose.
Another species,--the Monedula signata,--as large as a hornet, is
particularly useful in carrying off the teasing flies, the bloodthirsty
motucas, which buzz round the voyager on the Amazon when at anchor near
a sand-bank. Bates was rather startled by seeing one fly directly at
his face, on which it had espied a motuca, and which it carried off,
holding it tightly to its breast.
The pelopaeus wasp builds a nest of clay, shaped like a pouch, two
inches in length, and attaches it to a branch. It forms the clay in
little round pellets, kneading it with its mandibles into a convenient
shape, and humming cheerfully while engaged in its work. On arriving
with the ball of moist clay it lays it on the edge of the cell, and then
spreads it out round the circular rim by means of the lower lip, guided
by the mandibles--sitting astride while at work. On finishing each
addition it takes a turn round, patting the sides with its feet inside
and out, before flying off for a fresh pellet. It feeds on small
spiders, which it reduces to a half dead state by its sting, thus to
serve as food for its progeny.
One bee,--the Trypoxylon aurifrons,--builds a nest of clay like a squat
round bottle or carafe; generally in rows, one beside the other, on a
branch, or in the corners of a building.
The melipona bees are the most numerous of the honey-producing insects,
their colonies being composed of vast numbers of individuals. They are
smaller than the English hive-bee, and have no sting. The workers
collect pollen as do other bees, but a great number are employed in
gathering clay for forming walls as an outer protection to their nests.
They first scrape the clay with their fore-mandibles, passing it on to
the second pair of feet, and then to the large foliated expansions of
the hind-shanks, patting it in the process, till the little hodsmen have
as much as they can carry, when they fly off with their loads to their
nests. One species builds a tubular gallery of clay of a trumpet shape
at the mouth. Here a number of the pigmy bees are stationed to act the
part of sentinels.
Thus the melipona bees are masons as well as workers in wax and pollen
gatherers. Although they have no sting, they defend their habitations,
and bite furiously when disturbed. Bates found forty-five species of
these bees in different parts of the country, and one hundred and forty
of other species. Several of them were attended by drones, which
deposit their ova in the cells of the working bees, some of them having
the dress and general appearance of their victims.