More Enquiries into Mason-bees 



These treasures were insufficient, not in re- 

 gard to quantity, but in regard to quality, for 

 the main object which I had in view. They 

 came from the nearest house, separated from 

 mine by a little field planted with corn and 

 olive-trees. I had reason to fear that the in- 

 sects issuing from those nests might be heredi- 

 tarily influenced by their ancestors, who had 

 lived in the shed for many a long year. The 

 Bee, when carried to a distance, would per- 

 haps come back, guided by the inveterate 

 family habit; she would find the shed of her 

 lineal predecessors and thence, without diffi- 

 culty, reach her nest. As it Is the fashion 

 nowadays to assign a prominent part to 

 these hereditary influences, I must eliminate 

 them from my experiments. I want strange 



that the name occupying the first place should lend itself 

 to misconception. I hesitate to apply the epithet of 

 Pyrenean to an insect which is much less common in the 

 Pyrenees than in my own district. I shall call it the 

 Chalicodoma, or Mason-bee, of the Sheds. There is no 

 objection to the use of this name in a book where the 

 reader prefers lucidity to the tyranny of systematic ento- 

 mology. The second species, that which builds its nests on 

 the branches, is Chalicodoma rufescens, J. Perez. For a 

 like reason, I shall call it the Chalicodoma of the Shrubs. 

 I owe these corrections to the kindness of the erudite 

 Professor Jean Perez, of Bordeaux, who is so well-versed 

 in the lore of Wasps and Bees. — Author's Note. 



79 



