PRECAUTIONS OK INSECTS. 53 



outsetof his studies; for it is scarcely possible for many 

 broods of insects to be reared without observing' it. 



The insidious proceedings of these cuckoo in- 

 sects, as we may not inappropriately call them, give 

 rise to remarkable displays of ing-enuity on the part 

 of the mothers whose progeny is exposed to their 

 felonious designs. It is the usual practice of the 

 solitary bees and wasps to leave the whole task of 

 constructing and provisioning the nest to the fe- 

 male, the male, like an American Indian, taking 

 no part in those domestic concerns. In this case, 

 though she is seldom absent from the spot for 

 more than two or three minutes at a time, some 

 prying Chryds or Tachina often glides into her 

 domicile, and finds time to deposit its egg and 

 to escape before her return. Other solitary bees ex- 

 hibit both more civilization and more culining; for 

 the male assists, al least, in watching and guarding 

 the nest, if he does not lend a hand in its construc- 

 tion. The proceedings of one of these solitary bees 

 {Halictus fulvoci?ictufi, Steph,), indigenous in the 

 vicinity of London, has frequently t'allen under our 

 observation. It constructs a gallery, having on the 

 outside only a single perpendicular passage, but 

 branching out into seven or eight, at the bottom of 

 each of which is placed a globule of pollen kneaded 

 up with hont y about the size of a pea, where an egg- 

 is deposited. Walckenatr, who observed these in- 

 I sects with great care, remarks, that they only work 

 during the night in making their galleries ; and 

 our observations so far agree with his, that though we 

 I have observed some dozens of their nests, we never 

 saw them at work in the day. Instead of this, 

 either the male or the female always remains at the 

 entrance of the nest (which its head exactly fills) 

 ready to give no friendly reception to any enemy 

 that may venture to intrude. We have often seen, 



