Permutations of Sex 



slippery sides might easily be a little annoy- 

 ing to the Bee. Some of them were occupied 

 on the first few days of the laying; and the 

 Osmia who had started with a home of this 

 sort would pass next to a second Snail-shell, 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of the first, 

 to a third, a fourth and others still, always 

 close to one another, until her ovaries were 

 emptied. The whole family of one mother 

 would thus be lodged in Snail-shells which 

 were duly marked with the date of the lay- 

 ing and a description of the worker. The 

 faithful adherents of the Snail-shell were in 

 the minority. The greater number left the 

 tubes to come to the shells and then went 

 back from the shells to the tubes. All, after 

 filling the spiral staircase with two or three 

 cells, closed the house with a thick earthen 

 stopper on a level with the opening. It was 

 a long and troublesome task, in which the Os- 

 mia displayed all her patience as a mother 

 and all her talents as a plasterer. There were 

 even some who, scrupulous to excess, carefully 

 cemented the umbilicus, a hole which seemed 

 to inspire them with distrust as being able to 

 give access to the interior of the dwelling. It 

 was a dangerous-looking cavity, which for the 



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