BURROWING BEES ON PRIMROSE HILL. 



305 



ten or twelve inches, and occasionally even more. This insect is 

 usually about the size of the " worker " honey-bee, which she 

 somewhat resembles in form. She is. however, handsomer, and 

 also appears larger than her actual size owing to the abdomen 

 especially being covered with a thick pubescence, which ranges in 

 colour from a pale orange to a tawny-red in hue. This bee is, 

 in consequence, a conspicuous object on a sunny morning as she 

 flies in mazy flight, usually a few inches only above the ground. 

 The male insect is utterly unlike her, being smaller, less pubescent, 

 and more sombre-toned in hue. 



As the outcome of six years' observations it has been found 

 that over a period which has varied, according to prevalent 

 meteorological conditions, from the middle of April to the first 

 week in May the bees make their first appearance quite suddenly, 

 following on one or two days of warmer weather. For the first 

 few days the number of males emerging greatly exceeds that of 

 females, the relative divergence in numbers being as great as 

 fifty to one. 



Careful examination of bare patches of ground in the neigh- 

 bourhood, so soon as the bees are first seen, discloses a number of 

 small round holes which look as though they had been punched 

 out with the point of a pencil. These are the open doorways of 

 the burrows in which eggs were laid in the previous spring and 

 in which the bees, passing through the stages of larva and pupa, 

 have finally developed into the perfect insect. Herein the bee 

 awaits the stimulus of warmth to give it strength to break 

 through the slight covering of earth beneath which it has been 

 sheltering since the previous autumn. 



Within a few days further, mating havih'g taken place, the 

 > male bees are no longer met with, their brief life ending when 



the object of their existence has been attained. Almost imme- 

 diately the females begin to dig their burrows, as indicated by the 

 appearance of numerous little mounds like miniature volcanoes, 

 eventually three or four inches in width and somewhat less in 

 height. These are gradually built up of the tiny particles of 

 earth thrown out, a few grains at a time, as the work progresses. 

 In the first stages of the excavation the bee throws out the 

 particles of earth between her hind legs, after the fashion of a 

 dog when digging for a rat or rabbit, aiding the process by 

 sweeping motions of her abdomen. Later on, however, when 

 progress has been made beneath the surface, she brings up the 

 grains of earth she has dug out, on the top of her head, generally 

 waiting a few moments on reaching the mouth of her burrow, 

 before pitching them over the edge with a sudden jerk. The 

 resulting mounds are easily recognizable owing to the material 

 of which they are composed being lighter in colour than the 

 surrounding soil. 



On completion of the main burrow small nurseries are opened 

 out from its sidesf in each of which is deposited a carefully 

 kneaded pellet of pollen and honey, which hns to suffice for the 



