SOLITARY DEES AND WASPS. 169 



strong membrane like gold-beater's skin, yet ex- 

 quisitely fine, and lustrous as a piece of beautiful 

 satin. The bee has a forked tongue which she 

 uses like a trowel, smoothing down each layer 

 of the silk which she deposits on the walls of 

 the cells, plastering three or four layers one over 

 the other till her children's nursery is upholstered 

 quite to her mind. She then goes off to the 

 flowers and labours diligently until she has made 

 up a little ball of pollen and honey ; one of these 

 balls she puts in each cell and lays an egg in it, 

 out of which a tiny grub will be hatched in due 

 time. Finding its food all ready, the grub eats 

 and grows until it is full-sized, then it turns into 

 a chrysalis, and at length comes out a perfect bee 

 like its mother. 



The Colletes are smaller ^than the honey-bee, 

 but at first sight are very like it in colour and 

 shape. The males are smaller than the females ; 

 they do nothing towards founding the family ; they 

 flit from flower to flower and fertilise the blossoms, 

 so that in this way they are of great use by 

 enabling plants to produce seed ; they also bask 

 on leaves in the sun, and seem to have a happy 



