1983] 
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the next trip and masticated. Dry pollen was deposited on it and a 
new hole was formed with the abdomen tip. This behavior con- 
tinued until the provision was about V 3 its ultimate size whereupon 
the female tended to sprinkle pollen evenly over the entire surface. 
Nectar was also deposited more uniformly and the whole surface 
was chewed after each trip, incorporating pollen and nectar. 
On the last few pollen trips the bee used her face to flatten the 
vertical surface of the pollen loaf, using a motion similar to the 
tamping during partition construction. 
Oviposition and Cell Closure. Once the cell was provisioned the 
female collected an unmodified Oenothera strip. She masticated it 
into a moist ball and wiped down the floor in front of the provision, 
picking up loose pollen. As when making the basal partition she 
used the leaf pulp to form a ring around the inner circumference of 
the tunnel close to the edge of the pollen loaf. Two or 3 leaf gather- 
ing trips sufficed; the ring was the initiation of the apical partition. 
The leaf pulp ring completed, the female made 3 or 4 more forag- 
ing bouts each time returning with only nectar. On returning from 
the first bout the bee plunged her mouthparts deeply into one side of 
the face of the provision and continued to do so in an extremely fast 
up and down fashion for several seconds. With the mandibles mov- 
ing in a cutting fashion much of the provision was pushed to the side 
opposite the female. After the next trip the other side of the pollen 
loaf was worked in a similar fashion until the front half of the entire 
provision had been thoroughly kneaded. At the end of the final 
foraging bout the female regurgitated a large quantity of nectar onto 
the middle of the provision face and plunged her mandibles in an 
around its center until a small wet hillock was formed. The front 
half of the provision was thoroughly wetted with nectar and 
appeared much darker in color than the back half. This completed, 
the female turned around at the entrance, backed in and oviposited. 
As she backed into the cell, she inserted her ovipositor into the 
upper half of the hillock, appearing to anchor to the provision. A 
series of pumping motions forced the egg onto the hillock where it 
appeared to sink into the nectar. When the egg was about halfway 
extruded from the female the pumping motions ceased and she 
pulled away, leaving the anterior portion of the egg free and at 
about a 45° angle (Fig. 3). During oviposition the female remained 
