OR, MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 43 



rarely seen the hive-bee on these vines. The tailor-bees often 

 cut the foliage of the same vines quite badly. The males of 

 these bees have curiously modified, and broadly fring-ed ante- 

 rior legs. I have found these tailor-bees as common in Califor- 

 nia as in Michigan. 



I have often reared beautiful bees of the genera Osmia 

 and Augochlora, which, as already stated, are also called 

 mason-bees. Their glistening colors of blue and green possess 

 a luster and reflection unsurpassed even by the metals them- 

 selves. These rear their young in cells of mud, in mud-cells 

 lining hollow weeds and shrubs, and in burrows which they 

 dig in the hard earth. In early summer, during warm daj's, 

 these glistening gems of life are frequently seen in walks and 

 drives intent on gathering earth for mortar, or digging holes, 

 and will hardly escape identification by the observing apiarist, 

 as their form is so much lite that of our honey-bees. They 

 are smaller, yet their broad head, prominent eyes, and general 

 form, are very like those of the equally quick and active, yet 

 more soberly attired, workers of the apiary. The beautiful— 

 often beautifully striped — species of Ceratina look much like 

 those of Osmia, but they nest in hollows in stems of various 

 plants, which, in some cases, they themselves form. In south- 

 western Michigan they do no little harm by boring the black- 

 berry canes. They have simple hind legs. 



Other bees — the numerous species of the genus Nomada, 

 and of Apathus — are the black sheep in the family Apidas. 

 These tramps, already referred to, like the English cuckoo and 

 our American cow-blackbird, steal in upon the unwary, and, 

 though all unbidden, lay their eggs ; in this way appropriating 

 food and lodgings for their own yet unborn. Thus these insect 

 vagabonds impose upon the unsuspecting foster-mothers ip 

 their violated homes, and these same foster-mothers show by 

 their tender care of these merciless intruders, that they are 

 miserably fooled, for they carefully guard and feed infant bees, 

 which, with age, will in turn practice this same nefarious 

 trickery. The Apathus species are parasites on the Bombus ; 

 the Nomada species, which are small bees, often beautifully 

 ringed, on the small black Andrenae. 



The species of Andrena, Halictus, the red Sphecodes, and 



