The Ecology of a Sheltered Clay Bank 167 
The first to appear each year was Anthophora abrupta, 
and when its life cycle had run its course before the 
middle of the summer, the white-banded bee, Entechnia 
taurea, made its appearance. Other species of bees ap- 
peared from time to time, but none reached the impor- 
tance that these two species attained.* 
On June 25, 1917, it was found that several specimens 
of the mining-bee, Anthophora abrupta (Fig. 5), had 
emerged from their winter sleep in the depths of the 
clay bank, and were busily coming in and going out of 
their burrows. Some of these activities were directed 
to burrows which had mud chimneys at the openings, and 
some to others which had none. Some of these bees came 
in heavily laden with pollen; others had their gullets full 
of water; others were kicking out loose moist earth from 
their burrows and letting it fall to the ground below. 
Some were working within the burrows, and at intervals 
would come backing out with a ball of soft mud under the 
chin, toss it back to the hind pair of legs, and with only 
these appendages would fashion the wonderful little 
chimney which crowned the entrance; others were fre- 
quenting the puddle of water in a wagon rut near by, 
getting the water with which to moisten the hard yellow 
clay. Quite probably all these bees had emerged within 
a few days prior to June 25, and they were already at 
work in various stages of nest-building or provisioning. 
June 28 was my next visit, and this was after a heavy 
Shower. There was little activity among the bees; most 
of them were waiting indoors until the sunshine should 
warm up the bank, but several had learned to make a 
*In 1919, a third and new species of mining bee, Anthophora 
a oi ractically the same life cycle, and ap- 
peers at the’ odes S cant a few days later than 
a. 
