290 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



them through their larval stage — are characterized 

 by a special arrangement of the hind pair of legs, 

 the shank being flattened or hollowed and fringed 

 with stiff hairs which convert it into a basket in 

 which the closely packed pollen can be carried 

 home. 



The bees who act as cuckoos have no such pro- 

 vision, and it is a nice point whether their present 

 depraved status is due to the persistence in evil 

 courses of their ancestors, or whether the niggardli- 

 ness of Nature is responsible for their depravity. 

 On the one hand it may be that originally they 

 were fitted out with pollen-baskets, but that the 

 continued non-use of them caused these to dwindle 

 and ultimately disappear. On the other hand they 

 may have been at the beginning what they are now, 

 in which case it would be unreasonable to find fault 

 with their dishonest mode of life. 



Before much was known of the actual habits of 

 these bees it was assumed from the absence of the 

 pollen- baskets that they were parasites. Then in 

 the case of the genus Sphecodes, which has an incipient 

 pollen-basket, it was variously suggested that this 

 was the beginning of a better condition of affairs, 

 and that it was the last survival of what was once 

 upon a time in the history of the race a properly 

 developed basket. To give point to the first view 

 it was stated that some of them had been observed 

 burrowing on their own account. It may be that 

 they do at times strive after a better mode of life, 

 for which at present they are ill-fitted, but on 



