Bramble-bees and Others 



do not always belong to- late summer or even 

 to the Intermediate period : a few small tubes 

 contain the earliest eggs of the Osmise. A 

 couple of OsmiEe, more forward than the 

 others, set to work on the 23rd of April. Both 

 of them started their laying by placing males 

 in the narrow tubes. The meagre supply of 

 provisions was enough in itself to show the 

 sex, which proved later to be in accordance 

 with my anticipations. We see then that, by 

 my artifices, the whole swarm starts with the 

 converse of the normal order. This inversion 

 is continued, at no matter what period, from 

 the commencement to the conckislon of the 

 operations. The series which, according to 

 rule, would begin with females now begins 

 with males. Once the larger gallery is reached, 

 the laying is pursued in the usual order. 



We have advanced one step and that no 

 small one : we have seen that the Osmia, when 

 circumstances require it, is capable of revers- 

 ing the sequence of the sexes. Would it be 

 possible, provided that the tube were long 

 enough, to obtain a complete inversion, in 

 which the entire series of the males should 

 occupy the narrow gallery at the back and 

 the entire series of the females the roomy 



166 



