HUNTING WILD BEES 



tasks like these, marked with a Hke 

 ingenuity. What an aggregate of 

 wisdom, and how it mounts towards 

 infinity! — is vital within this great 

 bosom of animated nature from which 

 these creatures draw their varied cun- 

 ning and skill. One cannot but won- 

 der, as he thinks of it, where — what — 

 Who— back of mother Nature, must 

 be the Original Fount of it all ? 



Meanwhile the insect-net has been 

 busily sweeping the flowers as we 

 slowly move across the open fields. 

 We have fallen upon quite a colony 

 of that interesting group known as 

 mining or burrowing bees. We have 

 several examples, in both sexes, of Col- 

 letes^ and Andrena, Panurginus and 

 Augochlora,^ who drive narrow, tubu- 

 lar tunnels into the ground, wherein 

 they put their cells, protected against 

 the dampness by a thin, membranous 

 lining which reminds one of oil-paper. 

 One of these, Andrena soUdaginis, gets 

 its specific name from its fondness From photograph of 

 for the pollen of Sohdago; and the ^^''^^^,^^0^ 

 naturalist who so named it made no Natural History 

 mistake, for here we find the pretty 

 little fellows fluttering among the blossoms of golden- 

 rod. They visit other flowers, doubtless, but here 



BROODING NEST OF 

 LEAF-CUTTER BEE 



* Colletes Americana and C. compada. 



^ Panurginus compositarum. I am indebted to Mr. H. L. Viereck 

 for these and other determinations of species. 



149 



