Bramble-bees and Others 



and remove large lumps of earth which I take 

 in my hands and break very carefully so as to 

 examine all the parts that may contain cells. 

 Halicti in the perfect state predominate, most 

 of them still lodged in their unbroken cham- 

 bers. Though they are not quite so numerous, 

 there are also plenty of pupae. I collect them 

 of every shade of colour, from dead-white, the 

 sign of a recent transformation, to smoky- 

 brown, the mark of an approaching metamor- 

 phosis. Larvse, in small quantities, complete 

 the harvest. They are in the state of torpor 

 that precedes the appearance of the pupa. 



I prepare boxes with a bed of fresh, sifted 

 earth to receive the larvae and pupas, which I 

 lodge each in a sort of half-cell formed by the 

 imprint of my finger. I will await the trans- 

 formation to decide to which sex they belong. 

 As for the perfect insects, they are inspected, 

 counted and at once released. 



In the very unlikely supposition that the dis- 

 tribution of the sexes might vary in different 

 parts of the colony, I make a second excava- 

 tion, at a few yards' distance from the other. 

 It supplies me with another collection both of 

 perfect insects and of pupae and larvae. 



When the metamorphosis of the laggards 



436 



