Bramble-bees and Others 



to a mud which we are able to sweep with the 

 point of a hair-pencil. Let us have patience 

 and do our sweeping gently; and we shall be 

 able to separate from the main body the frag- 

 ments of a sort of extremely fine satin. This 

 transparent, colourless material is the uphol- 

 stery that keeps out the wet. The Spider's 

 web, if it formed a stuff and not a net, is the 

 only thing that could be compared with it. 



The Halictus' nurseries are, as we see, 

 structures that take much time in the making. 

 The insect first digs in the clayey earth a re- 

 cess with an oval curve to it. It has its man- 

 dibles for a pick-axe and its tarsi, armed with 

 tiny claws, for rakes. Rough though it be, 

 this early work has its difficulties, for the Bee 

 has to do her excavating in a narrow gully, 

 where there is only just room for her to pass. 



The rubbish soon becomes cumbersome. 

 The insect collects it and then, moving back- 

 wards, with its fore-legs closed over the load, 

 it hoists it up through the shaft and flings it 

 outside, upon the mole-hill, which rises by so 

 much above the threshold of the burrow. 

 Next come the dainty finishing-touches : the 

 milling of the wall, the application of a glaze 

 of better-quality clay, the assiduous polishing 



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