WOOD-BORING- BEES. 199 



to escape into day, are two or three in the upper cells — these are 

 males : the females are usually ten or twelve days later. This is 

 the history of every wood-boring bee which I have bred, and I 

 have reared broods of nearly every species indigenous to this 

 country." 



One of the wood-boring bees is especially worthy of notice, 

 because some of its habits were remarked a century ago by Gil- 

 bert White, who did not know its name, but chronicled its method 

 of obtaining padding for the nest. We will call it the Hoop- 

 shaver (Anthidium manicatum). It is one of the summer in- 

 sects, seldom appearing before the beginning of July, and is a 

 rather stout-bodied insect, grayish-black, with yellow lines along 

 the sides of the abdomen. The last segment of the male is nota- 

 ble for its termination in five teeth. Its length is rather under 

 half an inch, and it is a very remarkable fact that, contrary to 

 general usage among insects, the male is larger than the female. 



This bee seldom takes the trouble of making its own burrow, 

 but takes advantage of the deserted tunnel of some other insect, 

 such as the musk -beetle or the goat moth. When she has se- 

 lected a fitting home, she enlarges it slightly at the end, and then 

 goes in search of soft vegetable fibre wherewith to line it. The 

 mode of procuring the fibre is thus mentioned by White. " There 

 is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden campion for the sake 

 of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in the 

 business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see with what ad- 

 dress it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom 

 of a branch, and shaving it bare with the dexterity of a hoop- 

 shaver. When it has got a vast bundle, almost as large as itself, 

 it flies away, holding it secure between its chin and its fore legs." 



After performing this part of her duty, she makes a number 

 of cells, using the same material, together with some glutinous 

 substance, places an egg in each cell, and then leaves them. 

 When the larvae have obtained their full dimensions, they spin 

 separate cocoons within the cells, and in the following summer 

 the perfect insects make their appearance. 



If the reader will visit any fir wood, and look out for the 

 dying and dead trees which are sure to be found in such places, 

 he will probably see that many of them are pierced with round 

 holes, large enough to admit an ordinary quill. These are the 



