Preface xxi 



smother the egg by sliding down on the honey. 

 How shall it be given its correct dimensions 

 without a pattern ? The Bee does not hesitate 

 for a moment. She cuts out her disk with the 

 same rapidity which she would display in detach- 

 ing any shapeless lobe just useful for closing ; 

 and that disk, without further measurement, 

 is of the right size to fit the pot. Let whoso 

 will explain this geometry, which in my opinion 

 is inexplicable, even when we allow for memory 

 begotten of touch and sight.' 



Let us add that the author has calculated 

 that, to form the cells of a kindred Megachile, 

 the Silky Megachile, exactly 1,064 of these 

 ellipses and disks would be required ; and 

 they must all be collected and shaped in the 

 course of an existence that lasts a few weeks. 



8 



Who would imagine that the Pentatomida, 

 on the other hand, the poor and evil-smelling 

 bug of the woods, has invented a really extra- 

 ordinary apparatus wherewith to leave the 

 ^^•^ ? And first let us state that this ^^^^ is a 



