38 HYMENOPTERA 



CHAP. 



sort of paper was applied in the form of a dome, leaving thus a 

 considerable space between the true cover of the nest and the 

 covering of paper. From the first nest the Insects made their 

 escape in the usual manner, thus again proving that paper can 

 be easily pierced by them. From "the second nest they also 

 liberated themselves, but failed to make their way out through 

 the dome of paper, and perished beneath it ; thus showing that 

 paper added to the natural wall caused them 110 difficulty, but 

 that paper separated therefrom by a space was an insuperable 

 obstacle. Professor Perez has pointed out that this is no doubt 

 due to the large space offered to the bee, which consequently 

 moves about, and does not concentrate its efforts on a single 

 spot, as it of course is compelled to do when confined in its 

 natural cell. 



The power of the mason -bee to find its nest again when 

 removed to a distance from it is another point that was tested 

 by I)u Hamel and recounted by Pteaumur. As regards this 

 Fabre has also made some very valuable observations. He marked 

 some specimens of the bee, and under cover removed them to 

 a distance of four kilometres, and then liberated them : the 

 result proved that the bees easily found their way back again, 

 and indeed were so little discomposed by the removal that they 

 reached their nests laden with pollen as if they had merely been 

 out on an ordinary journey. On one of these occasions he 

 observed that a Chalicodoma, on returning, found that another 

 bee had during her absence taken possession of her partially 

 completed cell, and was unwilling to relinquish it ; whereupon 

 a battle between the two took place. The account of this is 

 specially interesting, because it would appear that the two com- 

 batants did not seek to injure one another, but were merely 

 engaged in testing, as it were, which was the more serious in its 

 claims to the proprietorship of the cell in dispute. The matter 

 ended by the original constructor regaining and retaining posses- 

 sion. Fabre says that in the case of Chalicodoma it is quite a 

 common thing for an uncompleted cell to be thus appropriated 

 by a stranger during the absence of the rightful owner, and that 

 after a scene of the kind described above, the latter of the two 

 claimants always regains possession, thus leading one to suppose 

 that some sense of rightful ownership exists in these bees ; the 

 usurper expressing, as it were, by its actions the idea Before I 



