The Mason -bees 



emy will succeed in penetrating the impreg- 

 nable fortress ; each foe has his special tactics, 

 contrived with appalling skill. See, an egg is 

 inserted by means of a probe beside the torpid 

 larva; or else, in the absence of such an imple- 

 ment, an infinitesimal grub, an atom, comes 

 creeping and crawling, slips in and reaches the 

 sleeper, who will never wake again, already a 

 succulent morsel for her ferocious visitor. 

 The interloper makes the victim's cell and 

 cocoon his own cell and his own cocoon; and 

 next year, instead of the mistress of the house, 

 there will come from below ground the bandit 

 who usurped the dwelling and consumed the 

 occupant. 



Look at this one, striped black, white and 

 red, with the figure of a clumsy, hairy Ant. 

 She explores the slope on foot, inspects every 

 nook and corner, spunds the soil with her 

 antennae. She is a Mutilla, the scourge 

 of the cradled grubs. The female has no 

 wings, but, being a Wasp, she carries 

 a sharp poniard. To novice eyes she 

 would easily pass for a sort of robust 

 Ant, distinguished from the common ruck by 

 her garb of staring motley. The male, wide- 

 winged and more gracefully shaped, hovers 

 192 



