Another Prober 



antennae by passing them through her mouth, 

 another polishes her wings with her hind-legs, 

 another frisks about to while away the period 

 of inaction. Some are making love, a sovran 

 means of killing time, whether one be born 

 that day or twenty years ago. 



Some, I said, make love. These favoured 

 ones are rare; they hardly count. Is it through 

 indifference? No, but the gallants are lacking. 

 The sexes are very unequally represented in 

 the population of a cell : the males are in a 

 wretched minority and sometimes even com- 

 pletely absent. This poverty did not escape 

 the older observers. Brulle,^ the only author 

 whom I am able to consult in my hermitage, 

 says, literally: 



'The males do not appear to be known.' 



I, for my part, know them; but, considering 

 their feeble number, I keep asking myself 

 what part they play in a harem so dispropor- 

 tionate to their forces. A few figures will 

 show us what my hesitations are based upon. 



In twenty-two Osmia-cocoons {Osm'ia tri- 

 cornis) y the total census of the inmates yields 

 three hundred and fifty-four, of whom forty- 



'Gaspard August Brulle (1809-1873), the author of 

 many works on natural history and one of the founders 

 of the Societe entomologique de France. — Translator's 

 Note. 



75 



