HYMEXOPTERA. ACULEATA. 223 



pollen-baskets in the thighs and at the base of the thorax. 

 Some Bees, known as builders and storers of provisions, 

 are apparently without any contrivance of the kind, pre- 

 senting one more of the countless paradoxes which arise 

 on all sides in tbe investigation of nature. 



The front legs of the Bees are furnished with a beau- 

 tiful contrivance for the care and dressing of the antennae. 

 This is a comb-like moveable spur which grows at the 

 end of the tibia, and closes down over a notch in tbe 

 tarsus just deep enough to embrace the antenna. The 

 Bees may be seen drawing their antenna? through these 

 little notches again and again, cleansing them from dust 

 and dirt, and even, when first emerged from the pupa, 

 stripping off a membrane with which they are occa- 

 sionally invested. 



Setting aside for the moment all arrangement founded 

 on structure, Bees may be distinguished as Solitary, 

 Social, and Parasitic. 



The Solitary Bees vary in their modes of life. Some 

 make the tiny cells which are the cradles of their young 

 in the hollow tubular stalks of plants, in snail shells, or 

 in underground tunnels, and are in the strictest sense of 

 the word solitary ; while others, haunting in considerable 

 numbers the same spot, form colonies, in which however 

 each pair has its independent dwelling-place. 



The Social Bees live either in republics or patri- 

 archal (or rather matriarchal) communities, each house- 

 hold consisting (as with the Social Ants and Wasps) of 

 one or more large perfect females, of smaller imperfect 

 females or neuters, and later of males and the large 

 females which are to produce their young in the following 

 year. 



The Parasitic or " Cuckoo" Bees make their dwelling 



