The Mason-Wasps 



bath ; and perhaps, if you search long enough, 

 you will light upon the structure of Eumenes 

 Amadei. The insect is scarce and lives 

 apart; a meeting is an event upon which we 

 must not count with too great confidence. 

 It is an African species and loves the heat 

 that ripens the carob and the date. It 

 haunts the sunniest spots and selects rocks 

 or firm stones as a foundation for its nest. 

 Sometimes also, but seldom, it copies the 

 Chalicodoma of the Walls ^ and builds 

 upon an ordinary pebble. 



E. pomiformis is much more common and 

 is comparatively indifferent to the nature of 

 the foundation on which she constructs her 

 cell. She builds on walls, on isolated stones, 

 on the inner wooden surface of half-closed 

 shutters; or else she adopts an aerial base, 

 the slender twig of a shrub, the withered 

 sprig of a plant of some sort. Any form of 

 support serves her purpose. Nor does she 

 trouble about shelter. Less chilly than her 

 African cousin, she does not shun the un- 

 protected spaces exposed to every wind that 

 blows. 



When erected on a horizontal surface, 

 where nothing interferes with it, the struc- 



1 Cf. The Mason-bees, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by 

 Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, i. to iii. et passim. — 

 Translator's Note. 



4 



