THE ANTHOPHORA . 
251 
triously and with no small difficulty. This bit of carpentry may 
take several weeks, as the hole sometimes reaches to a depth of 
a foot or more. But if the bee should happen to find an old 
gallery in a tree, or any tubular holes, she takes possession of 
them, establishes cells within, and makes their party-walls with 
sawdust, which she agglutinates with her saliva. The diameter of 
the holes is often half an inch, and after the sawdust is formed 
into a paste it is arranged so as to make the floor of the suc- 
ceeding cell, in which an egg is deposited with the usual supply 
of pollen paste ; this is covered with a layer of the sawdust, and 
thus the floor of another cell is made ; and about a dozen are thus 
constructed one above the other. 
There are some very common bees, which abound in the hot 
districts of Europe and Africa, which resemble hive bees, but are 
larger and more hairy. They are solitary bees, and belong to the 
genus Anthophora. One of them is a black insect, clothed with 
grey hairs, and having the last segments of the abdomen russet 
coloured. It digs holes between the stones of old walls, and 
collects all the sand dug out, agglutinates it with viscid saliva, 
and fixes it in front of the hole, arranging it in the form of small 
cylinders. This little vestibule, like that of an insect already 
described, is destroyed after the nest has been provisioned, and its 
materials are used to wall up the entrance. Other Anthophora , 
which make nests in rubbish, do not collect the substances which 
they have dug out, for they have plenty of materials at hand. 
Anthophora personata has fawn-coloured legs, and makes a 
nest in loose earth, and builds five or six cells which open into 
a common gallery. When the cells are opened, large larvae, or 
nymphs, as the case may be, are found. The larva of this 
Anthophora remains upon its side, and is a stout and large insect, 
especially as regards its abdomen, and the creature seems to be 
content always to remain in this curious position, with the body 
rather bent in front. In the engraving several of these solitary 
bees are drawn in flight, and a section of the cells and gallery is 
drawn on the right hand. Two of the cells contain nymphs, and 
two others, larvae. 
The bees which act as parasites upon others have been 
collected in one group called the Nomadinct \ Some of these 
