The Mason-bees 



Insects is masonry; only It Is turned out by a 

 rustic mason more used to hard clay than to 

 hewn stone. Reaumur, who knew nothing 

 of scientific classification — a fact which makes 

 many of his papers very difficult to under- 

 stand — named the worker after her work and 

 called our builders In dried clay Mason-bees, 

 which describes them exactly. 



We have two of them In our district: the 

 Chalicodoma of the Walls (Chalicodoma 

 mtiraria) , whose history Reaumur gives us 

 in a masterly fashion; and the Sicilian Chali- 

 codoma (C. sicula),^ who Is not peculiar to 

 the land of Etna, as her name might suggest, 

 but is also found In Greece, In Algeria and In 

 the south of France, particularly in the de- 

 partment of Vaucluse, where she is one of the 

 commonest Bees to be seen In the month of 

 May. In the former species, the two sexes 

 are so unlike In colouring that a novice, sur- 

 prised at observing them come out of the same 

 nest, would at first take them for strangers to 



*For reasons that will become apparent after the 

 reader has learnt their habits, the author also speaks 

 of the Mason-bee of the Walls and the Sicilian Mason- 

 bee as the Mason-bee of the Pebbles and the Mason-bee 

 of the Sheds respectively. Cf. Chapter IV., footnote. — 

 Translator's Note. 



II 



