Lesson CI

The Little Carpenter-bee

Leading thought—Not all bees live in colonies like the honey-bees and bumblebees. One tiny bee rears her brood within a tunnel which she makes in the pith of sumac, elder or raspberry.

Method—This lesson may be given in June or in October. In June, the whole family of bees in their apartments may be observed; in autumn, the empty tenement with the fragments of the partitions still clinging may be readily found and examined; and sometimes a whole family maybe found, stowed away in the home tunnel, for the winter.

Observations—1. Collect dead twigs of sumac or elder and cut them in half, lengthwise. Do you find any with the pith tunneled out?

2. How long is the tunnel? Are its sides smooth? Can you see the partitions which divide the long narrow tunnel into cells? Look at the partitions with a lens, if necessary, to determine whether they are made of tiny bits of wood or of mud. If made of mud, what insect made them? If of little chips how and by what were they constructed?

3. Are there any insects in the cells? If so, describe them. Is there bee-bread in the cells?

4. For what was the tunnel made? With what tools was it made? How are the partitions fastened together? How does a young bee look?

5. Write the story of the oldest of the bee family which lived in this tunnel. Why did it hatch first? On what did it feed? When it became a full fledged bee, what did it do? How did it finally get out?

6. Take a glass tube, the hollow at the center being about one-eighth of an inch across, a tube which you can get in any drug-store. Break this tube into sections, six or seven inches long, wrap around each a black paper or cloth, made fast with rubber bands and suspend them in a hedge or among thick bushes in May. Examine these tubes each week to see if the wasps or bees are using them.

Supplementary reading—“The Story We Love Best,” in Ways of the Six-footed, Comstock.