Bramble-bees and Others 



With the high temperature of this time of 

 the year, the development of the larvae makes 

 rapid progress : a month is sufficient for the 

 various stages of the metamorphosis. On the 

 24th of August there are once more signs of 

 life above the burrows of the Cylindrical Ha- 

 lictus, but under very different conditions. 

 For the first time, both sexes are present. 

 Males, so easily recognized by their black 

 livery and their slim abdomen adorned with a 

 red ring, hover backwards and forwards, al- 

 most level with the ground. They fuss about 

 from burrow to burrow. A few rare females 

 come out for a moment and then go in 

 again. 



I proceed to make an excavation with my 

 spade; I gather indiscriminately whatever I 

 come across. Larvae are very scarce; pupai 

 abound, as do perfect insects. The list of my 

 captures amounts to eighty males and fifty- 

 eight females. The males, therefore, hitherto 

 impossible to discover, either on the flowers 

 around or in the neighbourhood of the bur- 

 rows, could be picked up to-day by the hun- 

 dred, if I wished. They outnumber the fe- 

 males by about four to three; they are also 

 further developed, in accordance with the gen- 



438 



