12 THE SOLITARY BEES 



sustained by these creatures in the " full-fed 

 larva " condition. Some years ago I collected a 

 number of pierced bramble stems in order to breed 

 out some of the small " sandwasps " which nest 

 in them. On opening them in May, when the 

 perfect insects are generally ready to appear, I 

 found that several of the larvae had rather 

 shrunk up and had not changed into nymphs. 

 These I left in the stems, covering them up again, 

 and they appeared as perfect insects in the May 

 of the following year. 



The account given of the nesting habits of 

 the above Andrena of our lawns, etc., is more 

 or less true of nearly all the solitary bees. 

 Their methods vary, some burrow in the ground, 

 some in old wood, some in snail shells, some in 

 bramble stems or straws or the hollow stems of 

 various plants, some in holes or crevices in walls, 

 etc., and their methods of building their cells 

 vary exceedingly : all of these are of great interest 

 and some display an ingenuity which is quite 

 surprising. Of these special nesting habits 

 some of the most striking will be mentioned 

 later on. 



Before leaving these general remarks on the 



