MASONS 71 



and pollen, the bee would continue to pour in 

 provisions, and finish by laying an egg where there 

 was one already. 



As we shall see in a later chapter, the hard cement 

 of the Mason Bee does not secure its larva against 

 the attack of parasites who eat up its provisions 

 and starve it to death, or even eat up the grub 

 itself. 



Aristotle and Pliny describe the Honey Bee as 

 taking the precaution, when having to fly home 

 in a strong wind, to ballast itself by carrying a 

 small stone. Reaumur supposes that in this matter 

 they were misled by seeing Chalicodoma conveying 

 one of the blocks of masonry she had constructed 

 by cementing sand-grains together. 



From the Mason Bee let us turn to a considera- 

 tion of the Mason Wasp (Odynerus spinipes), which 

 chooses for a building site the slope of a sand- bank 

 where the sand is hard and firm, and therefore to 

 be tunnelled with safety, though with great labour. 

 Kirby and Spence tell us picturesquely that " its 

 mandibles alone would be scarcely capable of 

 penetrating [the hardened sand], were it not pro- 

 vided with a slightly glutinous liquor which it 

 pours out of its mouth, that, like the vinegar with 

 which Hannibal softened the Alps, acts upon the 

 cement of the sand, and renders the separation 

 of the grains easy to the double pickaxe with which 

 our little pioneer is furnished." 



It is both miner and mason. It bores a cylin- 

 drical cavity two or three inches deep, which 



