﻿i DASYGASTRES — MASON-BEES — INSTINCT 4 I 



was absent, and putting in its place the nest of another indi- 

 vidual in about the same stage of construction ; this nest was 

 at once adopted by the bee, which indeed was apparently in no 

 way deranged by the fact that the edifice was the work of another. 

 A further experiment was made by transposing the positions of 

 two nests that were very near together, so that each bee when 

 returning might be supposed to have a free choice as to which 

 nest it would go to. Unhesitatingly each bee selected the nest 

 that, though not its own, w r as in the position where its own had 

 been. This series of experiments seems to prove that the Chalci- 

 1 la urn has very little sense as to what is its own property, but, on 

 the other hand, has a most keen appreciation of locality. As, 

 however, it might be supposed that the bees were deceived by the 

 similarity between the substituted nests, Fabre transposed two 

 nests that were extremely different, one consisting of many cells, 

 the other of a single incomplete cell ; it was, of course, a necessary 

 condition of this experiment that each of the two nests, however 

 different in other respects, should possess one cell each in similar 

 stages of construction ; and when that was the case each bee 

 cheerfully adopted the nest that, though very different to its 

 own, was in the right place. This transposition of nests can be 

 rapidly repeated, and thus the same bee may be made to go on 

 working at two different nests. 



Suppose, however, that another sort of change be made. Let 

 a nest, consisting of a cell that is in an early stage of construc- 

 tion, be taken away, and let there be substituted for it a cell 

 built and partially stored with food. It might be supposed that 

 the bee would gladly welcome this change, for the adoption of 

 the substituted cell would save it a great deal of work. Not so, 

 however ; the bee in such a case will take to the substituted cell, 

 but will go on building at it although it is already of the full 

 height, and will continue building at it until the cell is made as 

 much as a third more than the regulation height. In fact the 

 bee, being in the building stage of its operations, goes on build- 

 ing, although in so doing it is carrying on a useless, if not an 

 injurious, w r ork. A similar state ensues when the Insect ceases 

 to build and begins to bring provisions to the nest ; although a 

 substituted cell may contain a sufficient store of food, the bee goes 

 on adding to this, though it is wasting its labours in so doing. 

 It should be noted that though the bee must go through the 



