The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles 



period, in May. The Anthophorae are the 

 actual pioneers, the work of boring the gal- 

 leries is wholly theirs; and their cells are 

 situated right at the end. The Osmia profits 

 by the galleries which have been abandoned 

 either because of their age, or because of the 

 completion of the cells occupying the most 

 distant part; she builds her cells by dividing 

 these corridors into unequal and inartistic 

 chambers by means of rude earthen parti- 

 tions. The Osmia's sole achievement in the 

 way of masonry is confined to these parti- 

 tions. This, by the way, is the ordinary 

 building-method adopted by the various Os- 

 miae, who content themselves with a chink 

 between two stones, an empty Snail-shell, or 

 the dry and hollow stem of some plant, 

 wherein to build their stacks of cells, at small 

 expense, by means of light partitions of mor- 

 tar. 



The cells of the Anthophora, with their 

 faultless geometrical regularity and their per- 

 fect finish, are works of art, excavated, at a 

 suitable depth, in the very substance of the 

 loamy bank, without any manufactured part 

 save the thick lid that closes the orifice. 

 Thus protected by the prudent industry of 

 their mother, well out of reach in their dis- 

 tant, solid retreats, the Anthophora's larvae 

 32 



