ROADSIDE LIFE. 



269 



The Mining-bees. — The bees of the genus An- 

 drena {An-dre'na) probably attract attention more 

 frequently than any other mining-bees. Some of the 

 species nearly or quite equal in size the workers of 

 the honey-bee. They build their nests in grassy 

 fields, sinking a perpendicular shaft with branches 

 leading sidewise to the cells. The main shaft some- 

 times extends to a depth of more than one foot. 

 These bees, though strictly solitary — each female 

 building her own nest — frequently build their nests 

 near together, forming large villages. Sometimes a 

 village, or we might say a city, of this kind, covering 

 only one square rod of ground, will include several 

 thousand nests. 



The Mining Digger-w^asps. — Various digger- 

 wasps build their nests in level ground, especially in 

 sandy places. One family of these are known as the 

 spiderwasps, because they provision 

 their nests with spiders. The spider- 

 wasps belong to the family Pompilid^ 

 (Pom-pil'i-dae) ; they are slender in 

 form, with long legs (Fig. 242), and are 

 usually black with dusky reddish or ^^' ^^^' 



black wings ; sometimes they are variegated with red 

 or orange. They are common everywhere through- 

 out our country, and are often seen on bright, hot 

 days running about with a jerky step and constantly 

 twinkling wings; even when at rest the wings are 

 frequently twitched. It is a common thing also to 

 see these digger-wasps running backward, dragging 

 their prey after them. A very large species which 

 occurs in the Southwest is known as the tarantula- 

 hawk, because it stores its burrows with tarantulas. 



