The Life of the Fly 



tics oil their hind-legs for a reaping imple- 

 ment; the Andrenae, so manifold in species; 

 the slender-bellied I lalicti. 1 I omit a host of 

 others. If I tried to continue this record of 

 the guests of my thistles, it would muster al- 

 most the whole of the honey-yielding tribe. A 

 learned entomologist of Bordeaux, Professor 

 Perez, to whom I submit the naming of my 

 prizes, once asked me if I had any special 

 means of hunting, to send him so many rarities 

 and even novelties. I am not at all an experi- 

 enced and, still less, a zealous hunter, for the 

 insect interests me much more when engaged 

 in its work than when struck on a pin in a cabi- 

 net. The whole secret of my hunting is re- 

 duced to my dense nursery of thistles and cen- 

 tauries. 



By a most fortunate chance, with this popu- 

 lous family of honey-gatherers was allied the 

 whole hunting tribe. The builders' men had 

 distributed here and there in the harmas great 

 mounds of sand and heaps of stones, with a 

 view to running up some surrounding walls. 

 The work dragged on slowly; and the mate- 



1 Osmiae, Macrocerae, Eucerae, Dasypodae, Andrenae and 

 Haliciti are all different species of Wild Bees. For the 

 Haliciti, cf. The Life and Love of the Insect, by J. Henri 

 Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: 

 chaps, xv and xvi. — Translator's Note. 



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