XX MASON BEES 2^g 



codoma sicula establishes herself in the first little 

 spot she can find, so long as it has a solid basis and 

 heat. As for the nature of this basis it matters 

 little. I have seen nests built on bare stones and 

 brick, on a shutter, and even on the glass panes in a 

 shed. One thing only does not suit the bee — 

 namely, the stucco of our houses. Prudent, like her 

 retainer C. muraria, she would fear ruin to her cells 

 did she entrust them to a support which might fall. 



Finally, for reasons which I cannot yet satis- 

 factorily explain, C. sicula often entirely changes her 

 manner of building, turning her heavy mortar dwell- 

 ing, which seems to require a rock to support it, into 

 an aerial one, hung to a bough. A bush in a 

 hedge, — no matter what — hawthorn, pomegranate, or 

 Paliurus, — offers a support, usually about the height 

 of a man. Ilex and elm give a greater height. 

 The bee chooses in some thicket a bough about as 

 thick as a straw, and constructs her edifice on this 

 narrow base with the same mortar which would be 

 used under a balcony or the projecting edge of a 

 roof. When finished, the nest is a ball of earth, 

 traversed literally by the bough. If made by a 

 single insect it is the size of an apricot, and of a fist 

 if several have worked at it ; but this seldom occurs. 



Both species use the same materials, a calcare- 

 ous clay, mixed with a little sand and kneaded with 

 the mason's own saliva. Damp spots which would 

 facilitate labour and spare saliva to mix mortar are 

 disdained by the Chalicodoma, which refuses fresh 

 earth for building, just as our builders refuse old plaster 

 and lime. Such materials when soaked with humidity 

 would not hold properly. What is needed is a dry 



