The Sitares 



In vain I placed within their reach lumps 

 of earth containing nests of the Anthophora, 

 open cells, larvae and nymphs of the Bee: 

 nothing was able to tempt them; they per- 

 sisted in forming, with the egg-skins, a 

 powdery heap of speckled black and white. 

 It was only by drawing the point of a needle 

 through this pinch of living dust that I was 

 able to provoke an active wriggling. Apart 

 from this, all was still. If I forcibly re- 

 moved a few larvse from the common heap, 

 they at once hurried back to it, in order to 

 hide themselves among the rest. Perhaps 

 they had less reason to fear the cold when 

 thus collected and sheltered beneath the egg- 

 skins. Whatever may be the motive that 

 impels them to remain thus gathered in a 

 heap, I recognized that none of the means 

 suggested by my imagination succeeded in 

 forcing them to abandon the little spongy 

 mass formed by the skins of the eggs, which 

 were slightly glued together. Lastly, to as- 

 sure myself that the larvae, in the free state, 

 do not disperse after they are hatched, I 

 went during the winter to Carpentras and in- 

 spected the banks inhabited by the Antho- 

 phorae. There, as in my boxes, I found the 

 larvae piled into heaps, all mixed up with 

 the skins of the eggs. 

 45 



