Bramble-bees and Others 



sect; others are as much as two inches. These 

 spacious rooms, out of all proportion to the 

 occupier, reveal the reckless extravagance of a 

 casual proprietress whose title-deeds have cost 

 her nothing. 



But, whether they be the original builders 

 or labourers touching up the work of others, 

 they all alike have their parasites, who consti- 

 tute the third class of bramble-dwellers. 

 These have neither galleries to excavate nor 

 victuals to provide; they lay their egg in a 

 strange cell; and their grub feeds either on 

 the provisions of the lawful owner's larva or 

 on that larva itself. 



At the head of this population, as regards 

 both the finish and the magnitude of the struc- 

 ture, stands the Three-pronged Osmia {Osmia 

 tridentata, DuF. and Per.), to whom this 

 chapter shall be specially devoted. Her gal- 

 lery, which has the diameter of a lead pencil, 

 sometimes descends to a depth of twenty 

 inches. It is at first almost exactly cylindical; 

 but, in the course of the victualling, changes 

 occur which modify it slightly at geometrically 

 determined distances. The work of boring 

 possesses no great interest. In the month of 



5 



