The Bee that Works in Stone 
73 
1928] 
ing that the bees took advantage of a fault in the stone to ex- 
cavate their nest. Such a crack, if present, was hardly noticeable 
from the surface. 
In some cases, one does not find such distinct galleries 
branching off from the tunnels in the stone. Thus upon chiseling 
out the nest used by thirteen bees I came across a most peculiar 
structure. The tunnelways from the entrances led down in a 
typical manner to a depth of 2 or 3 cm. (one inch). Here they 
began to branch and merged abruptly into an area of dark, moist 
sand about the size of one’s two fists. Lower Figure Plate II is a 
photograph of this nest. It was taken after the moist sand 
with its contents had been removed. The accompanying drawing, 
Fig. 4, shows the larvae as they would have appeared had the 
fine sand been transparent. 
Th'e explanation of such a nest is probably as follows: Ap- 
parently the bees had been working on the nest for years and 
years. Each season a new brood continued the work of excava- 
tion. And each year the branching galleries became more and 
more complicated, until, finally, nothing was left of the 
sandstone walls between the tunnels. Just a mass of the dark, 
moist sand remained. 
Embedded in this chamber of sand, 215 larvae, each within 
its mud-like cell, were present. Here and there was a dead 
adult, a silent reminder of the past season’s activity. If it is 
true that there were but eleven females in this nest of 215 larvae, 
then each female laid at least 19 eggs. 7 This is in harmony with 
the findings of Fabre (T5). He states further that after the bee 
has laid her limit of eggs, she continues her work of provisioning 
cells which are finished and closed up just as if the egg had been 
laid: — 
“I seem to see a rough image of the industrious per- 
sistency of the insect, still toiling away at its business, even when 
there is nothing useful left to do. This worker knows no rest 
but death.” 
Perhaps the same explanation could be offered for the pre~ 
sence of over a dozen such cells in this nest. In each of these 
7 “The total number of eggs laid not only by the Osmiae but by a host of 
other bees fluctuates round about fifteen.” — Fabre. 
