The Sitares 



the act, the male remains motionless on the 

 top of the shell, or on the top of the female 

 when the latter is entirely free. I do not 

 know whether, in ordinary circumstances, the 

 male occasionally thus helps the female to 

 gain her liberty; to do so he would have to 

 penetrate into a cell containing a female, 

 which, after all, is not beyond his powers, 

 seeing that he has been able to escape from 

 his own. Still, on the actual site of the cells, 

 the coupling is generally performed at the 

 entrance to the galleries of the Anthophorae; 

 and then neither of the sexes drags about 

 with it the least shred of the shell from which 

 it has emerged. 



After mating, the two Sitares proceed to 

 clean their legs and antennae by drawing 

 them between their mandibles; then each goes 

 his own way. The male cowers in a crevice 

 of the earthen bank, lingers for two or three 

 days and perishes. The female also, after 

 getting rid of her eggs, which she does with- 

 out delay, dies at the entrance to the corridor 

 in which the eggs are laid. This is the ori- 

 gin of all those corpses swinging in the 

 Spiders' web with which the neighbourhood 

 of the Anthophora's dwellings is upholstered. 



Thus the Sitares in the perfect state live 

 long enough only to mate and to lay their 



39 



