cumber themselves with such au appur- 

 tenance, however fond they might have 

 been of the sweet product of the insect, 

 and to this simple reason or cause we 

 are indebted for the preservation of the 

 Italian bee in a tolerable state of purity. 

 Santa Ana, Cal., May, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Habits of Wild Bees. 



JOHN MURRAY. 



The following extract is from " Cham- 

 bers' Journal," and may be of interest 

 to the readers of the Journal : 



Some wild bees are what is termed soli- 

 tary, otherwise social. Solitary bees pair, 

 and each pair lias a separate nest. Social 

 bees live together in large communities, 

 after the manner so familiar to every cot- 

 tage gardener. Solitary hees are often gre- 

 garious, that is, flock together ; in fact, no 

 insect is fonder of society. Sandy tracts 

 are the most frequented by them, more 

 especially commons and sand-pits. The 

 most usual habitat for solitary bees is a 

 sand-pit ; there one may see them busily 

 driving their fairly-like tunnels into the 

 perpendicular face of the bank, with an en- 

 ergy and perseverance well worthy of our 

 imitation. It is a very pretty scene, and 

 not soon to be forgotten. Thousands of lit- 

 tle insects are ceaselessly toiling for the 

 sake of their young ones ; all over the face 

 of the pit may be seen countless holes, so 

 beautifully rounded as to give the impres- 

 sion that. they have been all formed by one 

 tool. Here is a bright-looking little bee 

 busily opening a fresh tunnel. Watch her 

 for a moment, digging and shoveling, while 

 down below there springs up a little mound 

 of fresh sand, scraped out of the burrow by 

 the hind legs of the toiler. A little further 

 on is another burrow ; the hole is beauti- 

 fully circular, and the little heap of sand be- 

 low is larger and dirtier, showing that some 

 hours have passed since the nest was fin- 

 ished. Suddenly down pops a pretty female 

 bee close by the entrance to the tunnel. 

 How active she has been ; her body and 

 legs are covered with pollen dust, which 

 gives her a yellow hue. She is a little tired 

 after her morning's work, and rests awhile 

 sunning herself on the face of the bank ; 

 very soon she runs quickly into her burrow, 

 and disappears from view. At the farthest 

 end of the tunnel is a circular cell, carefully 

 hammered around the sides and made firm 

 by a kind of glue, to prevent a fall of sand. 

 In the middle of this cell is a round pellet 

 of pollen and honey, and on this ball of 

 food is placed the egg, whence in time will 

 emerge a hungry and ravenous grub. 



Some of our wild bees are called "artific- 

 ers," and their life-histories are among the 

 most interesting of all. These are the plas- 

 terers, who belong to the genu's Colletes ; a 

 word signifying "a plasterer." The plas- 

 terer bees burrow in sand or in the inter- 

 stices of old walls. They are pre-eminently 

 gregarious insects, enormous multitudes 

 congregating together in one spot. They 



drive tunnels slightly larger than their own 

 bodies, and having excavated the material 

 in which they burrow to the depth of 8 or 

 10 inches, they begin the task ot finishing. 

 They possess beautiful two-lobed flat 

 tongues, with rounded ends. These tongues 

 serve the purposes of trowels, and by the 

 help of them they plaster up the walls of 

 the interior of their tunnels with a peculiar 

 fluid secreted in their glands. This soon 

 hardens, forming a membrane more delicate 

 than the thinnest gold-beater's skin, and 

 resembling in its gloss the slimy path of a 

 snail. Three or four of these membranes 

 are successively formed, one inside the 

 other, and the cell is then stored with 

 honey and pollen ; an egg is laid, and the 

 cell is sealed up with a cap of the same ma- 

 terial. When completed, each is somewhat 

 thimble-shaped, and several being formed 

 in the same burrow, they fit most beauti- 

 fully into each other, and furnish us with an 

 illustration of insect architecture. 



The mason bee, belongs to the genus 

 Osmia. Although they are called mason 

 bees as a group, some burrow in the earth 

 and some in the pith of bramble sticks, but 

 nearly all of them construct a kind of stone 

 for building their cells. They are pre-emi- 

 nently spring insects. The most common 

 species are often abundant when the labur- 

 nan is in flower. The habits vary accord- 

 ing to circumstances, and its nests are 

 found in nearly every situation. Two 

 kinds of mason bees choose empty snail 

 shells for their homes. In selecting a shell 

 the bee sometimes pitches upon an un- 

 usually large one, with a very roomy whorl. 

 In such case she fills the space by forming 

 two cells side by side, and when she reaches 

 the opening of the shell and finds the mouth 

 of the whorl too large for this device, she 

 constructs a couple of cells transversely. 

 One species of this interesting genus, found 

 in Perthshire, Scotland, forms its cocoons 

 in the hollow cavities beneath flat stones. A 

 stone was found at Glen Almond, 6x10 inches 

 in size, with 230 cocoons adhering to it. 



Some wild bees do not make any nests of 

 their own, but inhabit the homes of other 

 species. Such bees are called parasites ; a 

 name borrowed from the well-know so- 

 cial character, sometimes called sponges. 

 Whether they are really parasites in the 

 sense of getting all they can from others, is 

 not known. Some parasites habitually ac- 

 company particular species, in whose nests 

 they are invariably found ; others frequent 

 the nests of a variety of species. Again, 

 some of the parasites are so like their land- 

 lords, that a suspicion attaches to them 

 that they deceive them by the similarity of 

 their appearance ; while on the other hand, 

 some are so different that no industrious 

 bee could possibly mistake them for its 

 brothers and sisters. The most probable 

 use these parasites serve, is to prevent the 

 waste of surplus food, as nature everywhere 

 provides scavengers. These insects are 

 true nomads, for' we find them everywhere 

 in the bright days of May, in fields, lanes 

 and woodland. Industrious bees vary in 

 the manner in which they treat their lodgers. 

 Some live with them on friendly terms, but 

 others never meet them without picking a 

 quarrel. 



