The Osmiae 



Devlllario, president of the civil court at 

 Carpentras, sends me a case of fragments 

 broken off the banks frequented by the Hairy- 

 footed Anthophora and the Anthophora of 

 the Walls, useful clods which furnish a hand- 

 some adjunct to my collection. Indeed, at the 

 end, I find myself with handfuls of cocoons 

 of the Three-horned Osmia. To count them 

 would weary my patience without serving 

 any particular purpose, 



I spread out my stock in a large open box 

 on a table which receives a bright diffused 

 light, but not the direct rays of the sun. The 

 table stands between two windows facing 

 south and overlooking the garden. When 

 the moment of hatching comes, those two 

 windows will always remain open to give the 

 swarm entire liberty to go in and out as it 

 pleases. The glass tubes and the reed-stumps 

 are laid here and there, in fme disorder, close 

 to the heap of cocoons and all in a horizontal 

 position, for the Osmia will have nothing to 

 do with upright reeds. The hatching of some 

 of the Osmiae will therefore take place under 

 cover of the galleries destined to be the build- 

 ing-yard later; and the site will be all the 

 more deeply impressed on their memory. 



6s 



