Bramble-bees and Others 



one wants to go in as a second is coming out. 

 This sudden encounter produces no strife. 

 The one leaving the hole withdraws a little to 

 one side to make enough room for two; the 

 other slips past as best he can. These peace- 

 ful meetings are all the more striking when we 

 consider the usual rivalry between males of 

 the same species. 



No rubbish-mound stands at the mouth of 

 the shafts, showing that the building has not 

 been resumed; at the most, a few crumbs of 

 earth are heaped outside. And by whom, 

 pray ? By the males and by them alone. The 

 lazy sex has bethought itself of working. It 

 turns navvy and shoots out grains of earth 

 that would interfere with its continual en- 

 trances and exits. For the first time I wit- 

 ness a custom which no Hymenopteron had 

 yet shown me: I see the males haunting the 

 interior of the burrows with an assiduity 

 equalling that of the mothers employed in 

 nest-building. 



The cause of these unwonted operations 

 soon stands revealed. The females seen flit- 

 ting above the burrows are very rare; the ma- 

 jority of the feminine population remain se- 

 questered under ground, do not perhaps come 



440 



