THE HALTCTI 205 



on in the flowers, with much less trouble than her thieving 

 trade involves. The most, I think, that she can allow 

 herself to do in the Halictus' cellars is demurely to taste 

 the victuals, in order to ascertain their quality. Her 

 great, her sole business is to settle her family. The stolen 

 goods are not for herself, but for her sons. 



Let us dig up the pollen-loaves. We shall find them 

 most often crumbled with no regard to economy, simply 

 abandoned to waste. We shall see two or three maggots, 

 with pointed mouths, moving in the yellow flour scattered 

 over the floor of the cell. These are the Dipteron's 

 progeny. With them we sometimes find the lawful 

 owner, the worm of the Halictus, but stunted and ema- 

 ciated with fasting. His gluttonous companions, without 

 otherwise molesting him, deprive him of the best of 

 everything. The wretched starveling dwindles, shrivels 

 and disappears with little delay. His corpse, a mere 

 atom, blended with the remaining provisions, supplies the 

 maggots with one mouthful the more. 



And what does the mother Halictus do in this disaster ? 

 She is free to visit her grubs at any moment ; she has but 

 to put her head mto the passage of the house : she cannot 

 fail to be apprised of their distress. The squandered loaf, 

 the disorder of swarming vermin are events easily recog- 

 nized. Why does she not take the intruders by the skin 

 of the belly ? To crush them with a bite of her mandibles, 

 to fling them out of doors were the business of a second. 

 And the foolish creature never thinks of it, leaves the 

 famishers m peace ! 



She does worse. When the time of the nymphosis 

 comes, the Halictus mother goes to the cells rifled by the 

 parasite and closes them with an earthen plug as carefully 

 as she does the rest. This final barricade, an excellent 



