344 



HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. LPackard. 



Fig 2- 



detected by its resemblance to an ant's nest, as the bee in 

 burrowing throws up a small hillock of sand. First she 



burrows straight down for two 

 or three inches, and then, turn- 

 ing off a little, forms a cell 

 as at a (Fig, 255), where she 

 deposits a mass of pollen as 

 large as a pea and lays an egg 

 upon it. By the time this 

 has hatched and the larva has 

 passed into its pupal sleep as 

 at a, several other cells have 

 been excavated, the lowest 

 one, of course, being the most 

 recent. In the figure the low- 

 est cell (/) contains only the 

 freshly laid pollen cell ; at 

 e, an egg is represented as 

 laid by the bee on the upper 

 surface of the mass ; while the 

 partly grown larva is repre- 

 sented at I lying on its side 

 devouring the pollen, Avhich 

 has, as seen at b, been eaten 

 up, the grub now being fully 

 grown and ready to pass into 

 the pupa state. 



The little mason bee may 

 be said to be social in some 

 degree. She builds her urn- 

 shaped earthen cells of clay or 

 fine mud in tunnels or holes, 

 sometimes in empty snail shells. The little green Osmia sim- 

 illima^ our commonest species of mason bee, sometimes places 

 four or five of her clay cells in deserted galls, as in Fig. 256. 



24 



Audiena vicma 



