BEE HODMEN 



operations that we discover the use of that puzzling tower : 

 it proves to be nothing more than a neat stack of material 

 held in readiness to plug the opening of the tunnel. In 

 order to remove the sand when digging, Odynerus finds 

 it convenient to mould it into little bricks ; and instead of 

 piling them in an untidy heap at haphazard about the 

 edges of the pit, like a good workman she arranges them 

 in a neat stack where they will be ready to hand when 

 wanted, and where they serve at the same time to keep out 

 trespassers. All that she has to do when filling up the 

 hole is to moisten the top of the tower and take down the 

 'bricks' one by one, placing them inside the tunnel until 

 it is blocked up level with the entrance. The cell is then 

 completed; the wasp has made every possible provision 

 for the welfare of her offspring, and the grub has nothing 

 whatever to concern itself with from its birth to its trans- 

 formation but devouring the ample supply of succulent food 

 with which its foreseeing parent has provided it. 



Some of the flower bees (Anihophora) follow the same 

 routine as Odynerus in constructing their cells, that is to 

 say, they make leaning towers which are afterwards de- 

 molished to fill up the holes. 



In tropical America, where the European hive bee is 

 unknown, its place is taken by a much smaller insect, the 

 Melipona fasciculata, which has no sting, but bites furiously 

 when disturbed. This bee forms big colonies and the workers 

 go about collecting pollen like other bees, but they also 

 gather clay, and their movements when thus engaged are 

 carried out with great precision. They dig up small portions 

 with their mandibles and, passing them from paw to paw, 

 they load up the 'pollen-baskets' on their hind legs. These 

 bees construct their combs in crevices of trees or banks, and 

 they use the clay to build stout walls in front of the nest, 



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