A new and accurate system of natural history (1763) (14780626675)

Identifier: newaccuratesyste04broo (find matches)
Title: A new and accurate system of natural history ..
Year: 1763 (1760s)
Authors: Brookes, R. (Richard), fl. 1721-1763
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: London, Printed for J. Newbery
Contributing Library: Duke University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Duke University Libraries



Text Appearing Before Image:
s, and are more pointed behind jand when they are prefled by the fingers, there pro-ceed therefrom fix fmall horns, three on each fide.Each of the teeth is terminated by a hook, iharp atthe end, and they are ferrated on the fides. Whenthis Bee has finiihed her neft, ihe fills it with pafte,lays an egg, and then clofes it up. When the egg isgrown to a proper fize, it weaves a filken fhell, whichflicks to the fides of the leaves in the fhell. Theoutfide of the filk is coarfe, and as brown as coffee;but the infide is very fine, and white, being fmoothand fhining like fattin. The WALL BEES are fo called, becaufe they maketheir nells in walls, of a kind of filky membrane, in theearth, with which they fill up the vacuities between thefmall ftones found in walls. They confift of feveral cells,placed end to end, and in the fhape of womensthimbles. Though the webs of thefe membranes arevery clofe, yet they are tranfparent, and of a whitifhcolour. It is thought they fpin thefe webs with a gluey
Text Appearing After Image:
OF INSECTS. 155 gluey fubllance, out of their bodies, much in thefame manner as a Silk-worm. They are lefs thancommon Bees, but like them, have a corflet of redhair, and the rings of their bodies are brown, bor-dered with white hair. They are in fhape like theleaf-cutting Bees, and the trunk is different from thatof the common Bee, it being more fhort and thick,-and is larger at the end, than elfewhere, and a littlecloven. There are tranfverfe rays or flreaks, that areformed by Ihort hair on the upper part ; and there islongiih hair that borders the turn of the hollow part.The males and females are all of the fame fize ; butthe former are without a fling. The feet of thefeBees are very proper to dig the earth, for they havetwo points, one at the end, and another that is moreIhort, infomuch that they make a fort of a fork withunequal prongs. The TAPESTRY BEES are fo called, from liningtheir nefts with a fort of tapeftry, which they getfrom the flowers of the wild poppy, newly blown,pla