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CHAPTER XII. 



ON THE INSTINCTS OF SOLITAKY WASPS AND BEES. 



The hive bee and the common wasps are so familiar 

 and so interesting that they have to a great extent 

 diverted attention from the so-called solitary species 

 of the same groups. Few, for instance, are aware that 

 about 4500 species of wild bees are known, and of 

 wasps 1100, of which some 170 and 16 respectively 

 live in Britain. 



These insects often live in association, but do not 

 form true communities. Speaking generally, we may 

 say that each female constructs a cell, every species 

 having its own favourite site, sometimes underground, 

 sometimes in a hollow stick, in an empty snail-shell, 

 or built against a wall, a stone, or the branch of a tree. 

 Having completed her cell, the female stores up in it 

 a sufficient supply of food, which in the case of bees 

 consists of pollen and honey ; while the wasps select 

 small animals, such as beetles, caterpillars, spiders, etc., 

 each species generally having one kind of prey. The 

 mother then lays an egg, after which she closes up 

 the cell, and commences another. Having thus pro- 

 vided sufficiently for her offspring, she generally takes 

 no further heed of it. This is not, however, an invari- 

 able rule : in the genus Bembex, for instance, the 



