The Tribulations of the Mason-bee 



tirely. The Dioxys would have time to strike 

 her blow during the mother's absences; but 

 everything seems to suggest that she behaves 

 on the pebbles as she does on the tiles. She 

 steals a march by hiding the egg in the mass 

 of pollen and honey. 



What becomes of the Mason's egg con- 

 fined in the same cell with the egg of the 

 Dioxys? In vain have I opened nests at 

 every season; I have never found a vestige of 

 the egg nor of the grub of either Chalico- 

 doma. The Dioxys, whether as a larva on 

 the honey, or enclosed in its cocoon, or as the 

 perfect insect, was always alone. The rival 

 had disappeared without a trace. A sus- 

 picion thereupon suggests itself; and the facts 

 are so compelling that the suspicion is almost 

 equal to a certainty. The parasitic grub, 

 which hatches earlier than the other, emerges 

 from its hiding-place, from the midst of the 

 honey, comes to the surface and, with its first 

 bite, destroys the egg of the Mason-bee, as 

 the Sapyga does the egg of the Osmia, It is 

 an odious, but a supremely efficacious method. 

 Nor must we cry out too loudly against such 

 foul play on the part of a new-born infant: 

 we shall meet with even more heinous tactics 

 261 



