Bramble-bees and Others 



the Bee a suitable purchase against the wall 

 at the moment when she is disgorging honey 

 and brushing off her load of pollen, the Os- 

 mia altogether changes the order of her work: 

 she sets up the partition first and then does 

 the victualling. 



All round the inside of the tube she places 

 a ring of mud, which, as the result of her 

 constant visits to the mortar, ends by becom- 

 ing a complete diaphragm minus an orifice at 

 the side, a sort of round dog-hole, just large 

 enough for the insect to pass through. When 

 the cell is thus marked out and almost wholly 

 closed, the Osmia attends to the storing of her 

 provisions and the laying of her eggs. 

 Steadying herself against the margin of the 

 hole at one time with her fore-legs and at 

 another with her hind-legs, she is able to 

 empty her crop and to brush her abdomen; 

 by pressing against it, she obtains a foothold 

 for her little efforts in these various opera- 

 tions. When the tube was narrow, the outer 

 wall supplied this foothold and the earthen 

 partition was postponed until the heap of pro- 

 visions was completed and surmounted by the 

 egg; but in the present case the passage is too 

 wide and would leave the insect floundering 



216 



