HYMENOPTERA. 365 
their eggs in the nest of the humble bee. They are, indeed, so 
like their hosts, that they can introduce themselves into their 
dwellings without raising any suspicion. The humble bees admit 
them freely, and receive them as if they belonged to the family ; 
so much so, indeed, that the poor humble bees themselves bring up 
the larvee of these impudent guests. In the Order Hymenoptera, 
one meets with many examples of these sorts of parasites which 
install their progeny in the nest of another insect, as the cuckoo 
does in the nests of other birds. 
SouirarRy BEEs. 
We have up till now found the insects of the great family of 
bees collected together in perfectly organised societies. But there 
are a great number of species of this family which live alone. We 
will briefly mention the most interesting of them. 
The females of the solitary bees are impregnated like those of 
the humble bees, and lay in spring, after having passed the winter 
asleep. They build a nest divided into cells, fill it with eggs, and 
with a honied paste shut it up and die, without having seen their 
progeny hatched. 
The Anthophoras (Figs. 336, 337, 338) resemble bees, but they 
are more hairy, and of greyish colour. Their nest, composed of 

Figs 336, 337, 338.—Anthophora parietina. 
earth tempered and agglutinated with their saliva, is made in the 
cracks of old walls or in the ground. It has the form of a twisted 
tube, and is divided, by partitions, into compartments, each of 
which is to receive a larva. Hach insect, when hatched, pierces 
its own wall, and profits by the hole of exit of the brother which 
preceded it. 
These insects do not thes together in societies. Indifferent 
neighbours, they do not lend each other mutual assistance. They 
