The Harmas 



store of honey and the egg. And these others, 

 so eager for plunder? They are Megachiles, 1 

 carrying under their bellies their black, white 

 or blood-red reaping-brushes. They will leave 

 the thistles to visit the neighbouring shrubs and 

 there cut from the leaves oval pieces which will 

 be made into a fit receptacle to contain the 

 harvest. And these, clad in black velvet? They 

 are Chalicodomae, 2 who work with cement 

 and gravel. We could easily find their ma- 

 sonry on the stones in the harmas. And these, 

 noisily buzzing with a sudden flight? They 

 are the Anthophorae, 3 who live in the old walls 

 and the sunny banks of the neighbourhood. 



Now come the Osmias. One stacks her cells 

 in the spiral staircase of an empty snail-shell; 

 another, attacking the pith of a dry bit of 

 bramble, obtains for her grubs a cylindrical 

 lodging and divides it into floors by means of 

 partition-walls; a third employs the natural 

 channel of a cut reed; a fourth is a rent-free 

 tenant of the vacant galleries of some Mason- 

 bee. Here are the Macrocerae and the Eu- 

 cerse, whose males are proudly horned; the 

 Dasypodae, who carry an ample brush of bris- 



^eaf-cutting Bees. — Translator's Note. 

 5 Mason-bees. Cf. Insect Life: chaps, xx to xxii. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



3 A species of Wild Bees. — Translator's Note. 



19 



