368 THE HOME OF THE BEES. 
While the Humble-bee in some respects shows much 
less instinct than the solitary bees mentioned below, it 
stands higher in the series, however, from having work- 
ers, as well as males and females, who provide food for 
the young: The labors of the Mason-bees, and their 
allies, terminate after the cell is once constructed and 
filled with pollen. The eggs are then left to hatch, and 
the young care for themselves, though the adult bee 
shows greater skill in architecture than the Humble-bee. 
It is thus throughout nature. Many forms comparatively 
low in the scale of life astonish us with certain charac- 
ters or traits, reminding us of beings much superior, phy- 
sically and intellectually. The lower forms constantly 
reach up and in some way ally themselves with creatures 
far more highly organized. Thus the fish-like seal re- 
minds us strikingly of the dog, both in the form of the 
head, in its docility and great intelligence when tamed, 
and even in its bark and the movements of the head. 
The parasites of the Humble-bee are numerous. Such 
are the species of Apathus, which so closely resemble 
the Humble-bee itself, that it takes long study to distin- 
guish them readily. Its habits are not known, other than 
that it is found in the nests of its host. It differs from 
the Humble-bee in having no pollen-basket, showing that 
its larvæ must feed on the food stored up by their host,as 
it does not itself collect it. The mandibles also are not, 
like those of Bombus, trowel-shaped for architectural 
purposes, but acutely triangular, and are probably not 
_ The larve of various moths consume the honey and 
waxen cells; the two-winged flies, Volucella and Conops, 
and the larve of what is either an Anthomyia or Tachina- 
like fly, and several species of another genus of flies, 
