FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



and crushing the Bees, without arousing anything worse 

 than a louder hum. For the Anthophora is a pacific 

 creature. When disturbed in the cells it leaves them 

 hastily and escapes, sometimes even mortally wounded, 

 without using its venomous sting except when it is 

 seized and handled. 



Thanks to this unexpected lack of spirit in the Mason- 

 bee, I was able for hours to investigate her cells at my 

 leisure, seated on a stone in the midst of the murmuring 

 and distracted swarm, without receiving a single sting, 

 though I took no precautions whatever. Country folk, 

 happening to pass and seeing me seated thus calmly 

 amid the Bees, stopped aghast to ask me if I had be- 

 witched them. 



In this way I examined the cells. Some were still 

 open, and contained only a more or less complete store 

 of honey. Others were closely sealed with an earthen 

 lid. The contents of these varied greatly. Sometimes 

 I found the larva of a Bee; sometimes another, fatter 

 kind of larva; at other times honey with an egg floating 

 on the surface. The egg was of a beautiful white, and 

 was shaped like a cylinder with a slight curve, a fifth 

 or sixth of an inch in length the egg of the Anthophora. 



In a few cells I found this egg floating all alone on the 

 surface of the honey : in others, very many others, I saw, 



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