1908] TURNER — SUN-DANCE OF MELISSODES 123 



this dance of the bees seems to be a free for all performance. Usually several bees 

 are engaged, but as few as one and as many as fifteen have been observed partici- 

 pating at the same time, and the plotting of the curves in which they move would 

 puzzle the brain of a skilled mathematician. Neither is it like the popular round 

 dances, where each couple forms an independent unit; for although one bee often 

 chases and sometimes embraces another, there are no permanent dual units. No 

 more is it like a jig, where each individual is an independent unit; but, it is more 

 like the game of cross-tag, of which so many children are fond. Arranged without 

 any apparent system, and seldom rising more than a few inches above the tops of 

 the grass stalks, the bees dart here and there in irregular lines. Moving in complex 

 curves of short radii, chasing each other, dodging one another, dropping into the 

 grass, knocking each other down, clasping momentarily and rolling upon the ground, 

 darting off for several yards and then returning,- at times resting for a moment upon 

 a blade of grass — such behavior, repeated over and over again, sometimes in one 

 order and sometimes in another, is the essence of the sun-dance of Melissodes. No 

 skilled musician plays entrancing tunes; but, as they dance, each bee makes music 

 with its wings. 



What is the meaning of all this ? Were the participants of the dance young 

 females, an explanation would be easy; for it would be considered an instinctive 

 play the function of which is to furnish memory pictures of the environment in which 

 they will excavate their nests. But they are not young females; their yellow clypei, 

 flashing in the sun, proclaim them males. Ever alert for the black clypei of the 

 female, I have scrutinized this dance for hours; but the regular participants always 

 displayed yellow clj-pei, the badge of maleness. Participants captured in my insect 

 net told the same story. At regular intervals, females do appear, for a moment, in 

 the midst of the dancers. I'hese, however, are not young bees; the conspicuous 

 loads of golden pollen, which burtlen the dense scopa of their hind legs, proclaim 

 them mature females that are hurrving homeward with food for their offspring. On 

 the appearance of such a female, a male usually darts after her. Often several do so 

 simultaneously. The alert female usually dodges them and continues homeward. 

 The males may even follow her to the burrow, and, hovering about until she reappears, 

 give chase. Sometimes the female's dodging is ineffective and she is struck by the 

 head of the chasing male. In such cases she is knocked to the ground. Although, 

 as a rule, the male drops immediately to the ground, yet the female usually escapes 

 to her burrow. In jeX other cases the pursuing male succeeds in securing a more 

 or less hold upon the female. They both then fall to the ground and roll over and 

 over. Even then the female frecjuently dislodges the male and escapes to her bur- 



