BEES HUMBLE AND OTHERWISE 69 



long before she has reached this stage, her golden 

 duvet has worn off and she appears as a very 

 commonplace brown bee. Let the reader discover 

 for himself her male from among those of the 

 sixty-three British bees that belong to the genus 

 Andrena. 



And what is this elegant little wasp that so 

 diligently flies about among the burrows of the 

 Andrena ? It is Nomada ruficornis, as you may 

 see by catching it and looking at its horns. Ah, 

 you caught a big one and it stung you. I knew it 

 would, but as its sting is but a feeble one I worked 

 this little surprise for All Fools' Day. If you 

 had caught a smaller one you would probably have 

 had no sting, for the male, as in every species of 

 wild bee and wasp except one, is smaller than 

 the female. Lastly, be it known that this insect 

 that we have been calling wasp, and which is 

 so emphatically like one, is technically known to 

 entomologists as a bee. 



What makes it a bee ? A solitary wasp when 

 found will be seen to resemble our social wasps 

 not only in colour, but in the power of folding its 

 wings lengthways when it settles. The wasp at 

 rest appears to have wings that are mere strokes 

 and obviously incapable of raising the insect into 

 the air. It is because each has been doubled along 

 its length and folded together. It is a businesslike 

 arrangement that suits the bustling underground 

 habits of the wasps, though it would equally suit 

 the hundreds of bees that also dig holes for a 



