Economy of Energy 



mining corporation. Three species, A. parie- 

 tina, A. personata and A. pilipcs, dig long 

 corridors leading to the cells, which are 

 scattered here and there and one by one. 

 These passages remain open at all seasons 

 of the year. When spring comes, the 

 new colony uses them just as they are, 

 provided that they are well preserved, 

 in the clayey mass baked by the sun; it 

 increases their length if necessary, runs out 

 a few more branches, but does not decide to 

 start boring in new ground until the old city, 

 which with its many labyrinths, resembles 

 some monstrous sponge, is too much under- 

 mined for safety. The oval niches, the cells 

 that open on those corridors, are also profit- 

 ably employed. The Anthophora restores 

 their entrance, which has been destroyed by 

 the insect's recent emergence; she smoothes 

 their walls with a fresh coat of whitewash, 

 after which the lodging is fit to receive the 

 heap of honey and the egg. When the old 

 cells, insufl^cient in number and moreover 

 partly inhabited by diverse intruders, are all 

 occupied, the boring of new cells begins, in 

 the extended sections of the galleries, and the 

 rest of the eggs are housed. In this way, the 



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