The Halicti ! Parthenogenesis 



out once during the whole of the latter part of 

 summer. Those who do venture out go in 

 again soon, empty-handed of course and al- 

 ways without any amorous teasing from the 

 males, a number of whom arc hovering above 

 the burrows. 



On the other hand, watch as carefully as I 

 may, I do not discover a single act of pairing 

 out of doors. The weddings are clandestine, 

 therefore, and take place under ground. This 

 explains the males' fussy visits to the doors 

 of the galleries during the hottest hours of the 

 day, their continual descents into the depths 

 and their continual reappearances. They are 

 looking for the females cloistered in the re- 

 tirement of the cells. 



A little spade-work soon turns suspicion in- 

 to certainty. I unearth a sufficient number of 

 couples to prove to me that the sexes come to- 

 gether under ground. When the marriage is 

 consummated, the red-bcltcd one quits the 

 spot and goes to die outside the burrow, after 

 dragging from flower to flower the bit of life 

 that remains to him. The other shuts herself 

 up in her cell, there to await the return of the 

 month of May. 



441 



