PSYCHE 
VOL. XXXVI SEPTEMBER, 1929 
No. 3 
THE BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF MINING BEES, 
ANTHOPHORA ABRUPT A AND 
ENTECHNIA TAUREA. 
By Phil Rau 
Kirkwood, Mo. 
Introduction 
This paper deals with the behavior and biology of two 
species of mining bees, Anthophora abrupta and Entechnia 
taurea, with brief notes on Anthophora raui. Large colonies 
of these three bees carried on their mining operations in a 
sheltered clay bank at Wicks, Mo. All three species were 
also important factors in the life of this microcosm (the 
clay bank community), and their relations, interrelations 
and reactions to environment have been studied and re- 
ported in a paper entitled “The Ecology of a Sheltered Clay 
Bank : a Study in Insect Sociology .” 1 In making an ecological 
study of that kind, one often faces difficulty in deciding 
just which data to publish under the title ecology, and 
which rightfully belongs to biology or behavior. Hence I 
tried to sift out for that paper the data on ecology, and all 
the remaining material, which more properly belongs to 
biology and behavior, is published herewith. Since the 
reader may not always agree with me in my arbitrary 
classification of data, and since I have tried not to repeat in 
this paper the data already published under the title “Eco- 
logy,” I can only recommend that he read the Academy of 
Science article in connection with the present one. 
1 Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 25:159-276. 1926. 
