The Resin-bees 



tain exact information is to break the shell 

 and split the cocoons in February, at which 

 time the nests of the summer Resin-bee are 

 occupied by larvae and those of the spring 

 Resin-bce by the perfect insect. If we shrink 

 from this brutal method, we are still in doubt 

 until the cocoons open, so great is the re- 

 semblance between the two pieces of work. 



In both cases, we find the same lodging. 

 Snail-shells of every size and every kind, just 

 as they happen to come; the same resin lid, the 

 inside gritty with tiny bits of stone, the out- 

 side almost smooth and sometimes orna- 

 mented with little shells; the same barri- 

 cade — not always present — of various kinds 

 of rubbish; the same division into two rooms 

 of unequal size occupied by the two sexes. 

 Everything is identical, down to the purveyor 

 of the gum, the brown-berried juniper. To 

 say more about the nest of the summer Resin- 

 bee would be to repeat one's self. 



There is only one thing that requires 

 further investigation. I do not see the reason 

 that prompts the two insects to leave the 

 greater part of their shell empty in front, in- 

 stead of occupying it entirely, up to the 

 orifice, as the Osmia habitually does. As the 



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