SOLITARY BEES 



277 



The appearance of these royal members marks the 

 decline of the colony. The workers and the old queen 

 perish, the nest is forsaken, and is soon demolished 

 by shrews and other animals, and of the rest only one 

 or two queens persist to carry on the laborious work 

 after a long sleep in winter quarters. 



Solitary Bees. The care of the young is a no less 

 fascinating study in the solitary bees. In early spring 



FIG. 54. Nest of Common Wasp. 

 (From a specimen in the Manchester Museum.) 



one may see these little burrowers preparing their 

 nests on sandy banks, selecting bramble stalks and 

 other hollow stems, or reconnoitring shells and 

 crumbling walls. As the solitary wasps are to the 

 social ones as cave-dwellers to fortunate citizens, so are 

 these bees to the hive bees. They work incessantly 

 during the summer, and then, with few exceptions, 

 both dwellings and dwellers perish. The males are often 



