Bramble-bees and Others 



more solid, she pours over the walls of the 

 chamber a salivary liquid which not only 

 whitens and varnishes but also penetrates to 

 a depth of some millimetres into the sandy 

 earth, which it turns into a hard cement. A 

 similar precaution is taken with the passage; 

 and therefore the whole is a solid piece of 

 work capable of remaining in excellent con- 

 dition for years. 



Moreover, thanks to the wall hardened by 

 the salivary fluid, the structure can be re- 

 moved from its matrix by chipping it care- 

 fully away. We thus obtain, at least in frag- 

 ments, a serpentine tube from which hangs 

 a single or double row of oval nodules that 

 look like large grapes drawn out lengthwise. 

 Each of these nodules is a cell, the entrance 

 to which, carefully hidden, opens into the 

 tube or passage. When she wishes to leave 

 her cell, in the spring, the Anthophora de- 

 stroys the mortar disk that closes the jar 

 and thus reaches the general corridor, which 

 is quite open to the outer air. The abandoned 

 nest provides a series of pear-shaped cavities, 

 of which the distended part is the old cell 

 and the contracted part the exit-neck rid of 

 its stopper. 



Z46 



