WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



57 



highest to the lowest part of this internal 

 work the measurement was almost thirteen 

 inches. The inside excavations were all con- 

 nected, whether by accident or by design, 

 must remain a matter of speculation until we 

 have some evidence that will settle the ques- 

 tion. 



While the diameter of the excavations in 

 the post justified the conclusion that the 

 work was that of the Carpenter bees, the 

 foreign material found in a section of one 

 side excavation showed that Carpenter bees 

 were not the only kind that had made 

 use of a portion of these quarters to raise 

 their young. In a cavity exposed by the split- 

 ing of the post there were six partitions made 

 of clay dividing it into as many cells, or 

 rather they were parts of partitions, for they 

 had been broken through by the insects 

 hatched in the cells after reaching the stage 

 of maturity. In the last cell I found the re- 

 mains of two small black bees. There was 

 enough of the desicated bodies of the insects 

 left to enable one to identify the remains as 

 being those of bees and to suggest the prob- 

 ability that they were of a genus known as 

 Osmia, which is quite numerous in this sec- 

 tion of our State. I recovered a wing in per- 

 fect form and an examination of its venation 

 confirmed the conclusion as to the species. It 

 i3 also characteristic of the Osmia to utilize 

 hollowed out places made by other agencies 

 than themselves for nesting places. How they 

 managed to pre-empt a section of the Car- 

 penter bees' apartments and hold it against 

 their big, overgrown relatives is a mystery. 

 The latter may have tolerated the little 

 bees, or possibly the last mentioned may have 

 occupied the place late in the season when 

 Carpenter bees were not using it. However 

 it may have been, the little bees showed their 

 disposition to avoid hard work by pre- 

 empting the old cells. When there are no 

 ready-made places for nests to be found by 

 the small bee it excavates the pith from 

 elderberry bush stems, or like pithy growths. 

 The desire to shun the work of excavating 

 in wood, or pith, by both species of bees 

 mentioned is hardly reconcilable with the 

 theory of those writers who insist that such 

 insects act only under the impulse of instinct. 

 Their idea is that nature has endowed these 

 lower forms of life with an instinct that im- 

 pels them to perform certain acts in a par- 

 ticular way at certain times, filling out their 

 cycle of life, and for this reason they can- 

 not execute any of the requirements in their 

 life history in a different way. According to 

 this theory the Carpenter bee being endowed 

 with instinct that directs it to bore holes in 

 dry wood for nesting it would be expected 

 that these bees should be found boring holes 

 for the purpose instead of insidiously hunt- 

 ing for a hole made by some more indus- 

 trious bee, or other agency, the year or years 

 before, an act that seems to indicate some 

 reason and judgment and the possession of 

 dislike for laborious work, a disposition so 

 commonly manifested among the human 

 kind. 



The Osmia according to Sharp is one of 

 the most important genera of bees in Europe. 

 The famous entomologist of France, H. 

 Fabre, gives much space to the doings of 

 these bees in his writings so popular the 

 world over. 



Anthidium is the name of another small 

 bee noticed at Deerwood. We discovered it 

 while in the very act that has given it the 

 name of "wool gatherer." The bees were 

 engaged in stripping off the wooly sub- 

 stance, or pubesence, of the underside of 

 leaves of wormwood plants. It was very in- 

 teresting to watch them in the operation and 

 note the thoroughness and dexterity they 

 showed in shaving off the so-called wool. 

 The insects did the work with their mandibles, 

 which are broadened on the ends and bear 

 minute saw-toothed edges. The shaving 

 was rapidly done with a cleanness and 

 smoothness that would excel the operations 

 of some barbers. The wool as it came off the 

 leaves was tucked under the chins of the bees 

 and rolled into the form of a ball and held 

 there with the aid of the fore legs. The 

 shaving operation continued until a bee 

 gathered a bunch as large as a small buck- 

 shot and would then fly away. Some obser- 

 vers say "this wool is gathered to line the cells 

 of the nests they make in excavations made 

 by other insects." The cells made one on top 

 of another are filled with pollen and honey 

 for food for the larvae when hatched from 

 the single egg deposited in each cell. We 

 were not fortunate enough to find any nest 

 of these little members of the bee family. 



However, it was while watching the actions 

 of some bees in the vicinity of the operations 

 of the Anthidiums I suddenly discovered that 

 I was sitting on the ground in the very midst 

 of a whole colony of bees, finding many 

 more nests in a smaller space than I had ever 

 seen before. Fortunately for my comfort 

 the bees were too small to be able to or so 

 mild mannered they did not, resent my in- 

 trusion into the place of their habitation in 

 the manner so painful and common in the 

 actions of the large species of the family • 

 under like circumstances. 



Soon after getting down on the ground I 

 saw several little bees flying closely about 

 me, but being among some wild flowers and 

 grass I thought these were the attractions. 

 Finally I became interested in the little fel- 

 lows and concluded to watch and find out if 

 possible what they were doing there. I soon 

 noticed one disappear down among the grass 

 roots, but it did not occur to me that the bee 

 had gone down into its burrow until I had 

 noticed two or more disappear after alighting 

 on the ground. Closer examination disclosed 

 several mounds of finely pulverized earth at 

 the entrance of the burrows. On some of 

 these I had been stepping, besides in moving 

 about I had tramped and mashed down much 

 of the grass and flowers covering the restrict- 

 ed area occupied by the bees. It was a trian- 

 gular piece the three sides of which were not 

 more than three feet in length. Over this I 

 now saw maybe fifty, or more, bees hover- 

 ing and flying in slow zigzag manner. The 



