Bramble-bees and Others 



the cylinder would not permit; she confines 

 herself to putting up a frail circular pad of 

 green putty, as though to limit, before any 

 attempt at harvesting, the space to be occu- 

 pied by the Bee-bread, whose depth could not 

 be calculated afterwards if the Insect did not 

 first mark out its confines. Can there really be 

 an act of measuring? That would be super- 

 latively clever. Let us consult the Three- 

 horned Osmia in her glass tubes. 



The Osmia Is working at her big partition, 

 with her body outside the cell which she is 

 preparing. From time to time, with a pellet 

 of mortar In her mandibles, she goes in and 

 touches the previous ceiling with her forehead, 

 while the tip of her abdomen quivers and 

 feels the pad in course of construction. One 

 might well say that she is using the length of 

 her body as a measure, In order to fix the 

 next ceiling at the proper distance. Then she 

 resumes her work. Perhaps the measure was 

 not correctly taken; perhaps her memory, a 

 few seconds old, has already become muddled. 

 The Bee once more ceases laying her plaster 

 and again goes and touches the front wall 

 with her forehead and the back wall with the 

 tip of her abdomen. Looking at that body 



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