WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



49 



from the harder wood, but were able to recog- 

 nize and select the softest part of such wood 

 in which to operate. 



Unlike the hive or domestic honey bees, 

 with their queens, workers and drones, there 

 are only male and female Carpenters; and 

 unlike the bumble bees, of which only the 

 females survive the year, both male and female 

 Carpenters hibernate during the winter and 

 come forth in the spring and prepare for new 

 families. However, it is the female that does 

 all the work. She selects the places and bores 

 the holes in the dry timber and makes the 

 tunnels therein as well as the cells for the 

 baby bees. She, too, alone gathers the pollen 

 and nectar from flowers to store in the cells 

 as food for the babies when hatched. I 

 watched the actions of male bees for hours 

 and about the only activity they engaged in 

 was hovering around flowering shrubs, main- 

 taining, as a rule, a distance of about 20 inches 

 from the blossoms and engaging in combats 

 with other male bees of the species when they 

 came around. Females were allowed to go to 

 the flowers without much interference. The 

 males would dive at them once in a while but 

 would not follow them up and exhibit the 

 vicious disposition manifest in their rushes at 

 other intruding male Carpenters. I could 

 only reconcile these actions as being their 

 manner of mating, considering the good sense 

 and sound judgment these insects showed in 

 other habits. 



As stated there were quite a large number 

 of bees of the species about our place, consid- 

 ering the fact that this family of bees is not 

 large. Sometimes as many as a half-dozen 

 females could be seen flying about the porch 

 examining the dry timber of its construction, 

 and as many, or more, could be seen working 

 among the flowers. And more females than 

 males were always in evidence. I found no 

 small interest in following the female bees 

 while they were in search of a nesting place. 

 Perhaps I should have first stated that the 

 bees do not excavate new holes other than 

 when compelled by force of circumstance, 

 but use the old holes over and over. In fact, 

 I did not see them make a single new hole. 

 Up to the time I left the bees seemed to be 

 able to find excavations made by previous 

 generations and old auger holes in posts in 

 sufficient number to supply all their require- 

 ments. As an example of the thoroughness 

 of their search for apartments to save the 

 labor of construction I will mention the ac- 

 tions of one female. She commenced at one 

 end of the porch on the south side of the 

 house and passed along examining each post 

 from top to bottom on all sides, not overlook- 

 ing the rail fastened to the posts under the 

 eaves of the porch, as well as taking an oc- 

 casional trip to scrutinize the boards of the 

 underside of the roofing. She did all this 



work mainly on the wing, stopping once in a 

 while to give closer inspection of some de- 

 pression in the wood. Similar inspections by 

 other Carpenter bees were constantly going on 

 about the premises during the warm hours of 

 the day. 



There were a number of bee holes about 

 the place, but none of them showed any indi- 

 cations of having been made this season, 

 though in one case the inmates gave some 

 time to enlarging an excavation or extending 

 the tunnel; chips and fine particles of wood 

 were occasionally ejected from the hole. In 

 one instance I saw a bee, after hunting some 

 time for an apartment, stop on a dry board 

 and start to bore a hole. She made slow head- 

 way and after working four or five minutes 

 she abandoned the work. In that time she 

 had excavated a place less than a thirty- 

 second of an inch in depth and in circumfer- 

 ence but little larger than her head. 



All the old holes seemed to be occupied by 

 the early-comers and the inmates were busy 

 carrying pollen and nectar into them. When 

 the late-comers, in their search for quarters, 

 would come across one of the holes, which by 

 the way was a matter of frequent occurrence, 

 they would generally stop and go part way 

 in as if to inquire "Is this place occupied?" 

 Finding it tenanted, they would back out and 

 continue their search. 



At evening time, when the air begins to 

 chill with the disappearance of the sun, the 

 bees that had nests, or holes, retired to them. 

 The females not yet supplied with such quar- 

 ters, together with the males, seek a cavity of 

 such form as will afford them protection for 

 the night. In a large redwood post standing 

 in the rear of our place there had been bored 

 through it two holes five-eighths of an inch 

 in diameter. These holes were popular places 

 of resort for the night. It was surprising to 

 see the number of big bees that would crowd 

 into one of the holes. As the holes were bored 

 through the post the bees made use of the 

 double entrance to the lodging house. They 

 would crowd in until the unique apartment 

 was filled to the doorways. 



This particular Carpenter bee enjoys a wide 

 range of habitation, especially in the way of 

 elevation. I found the bees active in their 

 nesting operations at several places on the 

 floor of Yosemite Valley in the earily part of 

 June. There the elevation above sea level is 

 about 4000 feet, while the elevation at Diablo 

 does not exceed 500 feet, and that of Deer- 

 wood 1200 feet. The snow, frost and ice that 

 occupies the v famous valley during the winter 

 months, which is not experienced at the other 

 places, does not appear to have any influence 

 in shaping the life history of the bees there 

 differently from that of their relatives which 

 pass their lives nearer the sea level in a much 

 warmer winter climate. 



