X INTRODUCTION 



majority of species the parent is dead long before 

 the daughter comes to that stage of existence when 

 the necessity for making provision for her progeny 

 arises ; so the knowledge has to pass by way of 

 transmitted memory. Somewhere in the minute 

 speck of protoplasm constituting the egg of one of 

 the Solitary Bees, there is an infinitesimal particle 

 of nerve matter which contains the secret of how 

 to cut accurate circles and ovals of rose-leaf so that 

 a number of them will overlap and curve into a 

 perfect cylinder. During the greater part of its 

 life the creature that hatches out from that egg 

 will have no need of the secret, but the germ of it 

 will go on developing, and when the insect has 

 attained to the complete bee form there is the idea 

 in the memory cells ready to instruct the nerves 

 that govern the action of wings and legs and cutting 

 jaws. 



Here is a marvel which should make us keen to 

 follow with interest the industries of these little 

 creatures. It is only one example of the thousands 

 of marvels that reward the inquirer into Insect 

 Economics. With a view to awakening an interest 

 in these matters, the following pages have been 

 written ; and the better to attract the attention 

 of those to whom a more systematic treatment 

 would be considered dry and uninteresting, the 

 examples chosen have been grouped under headings 

 borrowed from the human industries that most 

 nearly correspond to the activities of these Insect 

 Artizans. 



