Bramble-bees and Others 



July, cutting out her rounds and ellipses at 

 the expense of the petals of the Ptiargoniiim 

 zonale, the common geranium. Her perse- 

 verance devastated — there is no other word 

 for it — my modest array of pots. Hardly was 

 a blossom out, when the ardent Megachiles 

 came and scalloped it into crescents. The 

 colour was indifferent to her: red, white or 

 pink, all the petals underwent the disastrous 

 operation. A few captures, by this time an- 

 cient relics of my collecting-boxes, indemnified 

 me for the pillage. I have not seen the un- 

 pleasant Bee since. With what does she build 

 when there are no geranium-flowers handy? 

 I do not know; but the fact remains that the 

 fragile talloress used to attack the foreign 

 flower, a fairly recent acquisition from the 

 Cape, as though all her race had never done 

 anything else. 



These details leave us with one obvious 

 conclusion, which is contrary to our original 

 ideas, based on the unvarying character of 

 insect industry. In constructing their jars, 

 the Leaf-cutters, each following the taste pe- 

 culiar to her species, do not make use of this 

 or that plant to the exclusion of the others; 

 they have no definite flora, no domain faith- 



268 



