ipenne, represent two common forms. The former is black,
while the latter is a pretty insect, greenish, with purplish-red
wing-covers, and black legs.

Figure 226, enlarged about three times, represents a singular larva
found by Mr. J. H. Emerton under a stone early in spring. Dr. LeConte,
to whom we sent a figure, supposes that it may possibly be a larva of
Harpalus, or Pangus caliginosus. It is evidently a young Carabid. The
under side is represented.

_The Insects of May._

During this month there is great activity among the insects. As the
flowers bloom and the leaves appear, multitudes wake from their long
winter sleep, and during this month pass through the remainder of their
transformations, and prepare for the summer campaign. Most insects
hibernate in the chrysalis or pupa state, while many winter in the
caterpillar or larva state, such as the larvae of several Noctuidae and
the "yellow-bear," and other caterpillars of Arctia and its allies.
Other insects hibernate in the adult or imago form, either as beetles,
butterflies or certain species of bees.

It is well known that the Queen Humble bee winters under the moss, or in
her old nest. During the present month her rovings seem to have a more
definite object, and she seeks some deserted mouse's nest, or hollow in
a tree or stump, and there stows away her pellets of pollen, containing
two or three eggs apiece, which, late in the summer, are to form the
nucleus of a well-appointed colony. The Carpenter bees (Ceratina and
Xylocopa, the latter of which is found in abundance south of New
England) are busy in refitting and tunnelling the hollows of the grape;
while the Ceratina hollows out the stem of the elder, or blackberry.
This little upholsterer bee carpets her honey-tight apartment, storing
it with food for her young, and later in the season, in June, several of
these cartridge-like cells, whose silken walls resemble the finest and
most delicate parchment, may be found in the hollow stems of these
plants. The Mason bee (Osmia) places her nest in a more exposed site,
building her earthen cells of pellets of moistened mud, either situated
under a stone, or in some more sheltered place; for instance, in a
deserted oak-gall, ranging half a dozen of them side by side along the
vault of this strange domicile. Meanwhile their more lowly relatives,
the Andrena and Halictus bees, are engaged in tunnelling the side of
some sunny bank or path, running long galleries