172 
Psyche 
[September 
of the burrow would come out and fight with the intruder . 1 
On one occasion the occupant grabbed the leg of the intruder 
in its mandibles and held on so tenaciously that the bee in 
attempting to pull the leg away, dragged the occupant a 
great distance from the hole, thus giving opportunity to a 
bee nearby to enter and take possession of the coveted place. 
Often throughout the conflict the legs were gripped so 
fiercely in the mandibles that I thought surely they would be 
snipped off, but this never happened. 
After capturing many of the bees, I ascertained, by the 
absence of pollen baskets, that they were males, and I 
promptly wondered if they did not crowd around certain 
burrows that were about to give forth members of the 
opposite sex. There was one hole in particular about which 
they crowded thus in clamorous competition, so I decided 
to open the burrow with my knife. The contestants, how- 
ever, were not to be pushed aside; they persisted there, 
even though the blade nearly severed them, and excitedly 
buzzed about the tool ; it seemed they could scent the female 
within, and could not be driven from the spot. Again and 
again I tried to penetrate the mass to remove the few little 
clods of dirt which hid the secret prize, but it could not be 
done without dismembering the bees. Another cocoon was 
unearthed elsewhere in the bank, however, and with a knife 
it was carefully opened; within was a bee, fully developed 
but all wet and soggy and with wings uninflated. It was 
in my forceps but a few seconds before a half a dozen males 
were clinging to it, displaying every evidence of a great 
eagerness to mate. The excitement continued for some 
minutes, when one male and this immature one succeeded in 
making their escape. 
Since at the beginning of the season only one female was 
seen at work burrowing, and some twenty-five males were 
about, it appears that in this species, as in many other cases 
of the insect world, the males enjoy a priority of emergence, 
and await the coming of the females. 
1 I do not know whether or not they used their stings on one an- 
other; when females were taken in the fingers, they did not hesitate 
to use the sting freely. The pain, however, was not severe, lasting 
only a few minutes. In this they differed from Anthophora abrupta . 
