The Resin-bees 



The bits of gravel in the lid are angular 

 and chalky in the Marseilles nest; they are 

 round and flinty in most of the Serignan nests. 

 In making her mosaic, the worker pays no 

 heed to the form or colour of its component 

 parts; she collects indiscriminately anything 

 that is hard enough and not too large. Some- 

 times she lights upon treasures that give her 

 work a more original character. The 

 Marseilles nest shows me, neatly encrusted 

 amid the bits of gravel, a tiny whole land- 

 shell, Pupa cinercs. A nest in my own neigh- 

 bourhood provides me with a pretty Snail- 

 shell, Ililix striata, forming a rose pattern 

 in the middle of the mosaic. These little 

 artistic details remind me of a certain nest of 

 Eumcnes Amadci^ which abounds in small 

 shells. Ornamental shell-work appears to 

 number its lovers among the insects. 



After the lid of resin and gravel, an entire 

 whorl of the spiral is occupied by a barricade 

 of incongruous remnants, similar to that 

 which, in the reeds, protects the row of 

 cocoons of the Manicate Cotton-bee. It is 

 curious to see exactly the same defensive 



'A \fason-wa'-p, the essay on whom has not yet been 

 published in English. — Translator's Nole. 



3U 



