366 THE INSECT WORLD. 
their eggs in the nests of the humble bee. They are, indeed, so 
like their hosts, that they can introduce themselves into their 
dwellings without raising any suspicion. The humble bees admit 
them freely, and receive them as if they belonged to the family ; 
so much so, indeed, that the poor humble bees themselves bring up 
the larvee of these impudent guests. In the Order Hymenoptera, 
one meets with many examples of these sorts of parasites which 
install their progeny in the nest of another insect, as the cuckoo 
does in the nests of other birds. 
SoLITARY BEEs. 
We have up till now found the insects of the great family of 
bees collected together in perfectly organized societies. But there 
are a great number of species of this family which live alone. 
We will briefly mention the most interesting of them. 
The females of the solitary bees are impregnated like those of 
the humble bees, at the end of September, and lay in spring, after 
having passed the winter asleep. ‘They build a nest divided into 
cells, fill it with eggs, and with a honied paste shut it up and 
die, without having seen their progeny hatched. 
The Anthophoras (Figs. 336, 337, 338) resemble bees, but they 
are more hairy, and of greyish colour. Their nest, composed of 

Figs, 336, 337, 338.—Anthophora parietina. 
earth tempered and agglutinated with their saliva, is made in the 
eracks of old walls or in the ground. It has the form of a twisted | 
tube, and is divided, by partitions, into compartments, each of | 
which is to receivea larva. Hach insect, when hatched, pierces its | 
own wall, and profits by the hole of exit of the brother which pre- 
ceded it. : 
These insects do not live together in societies. Indifferent 
neighbours, they do not lend each other mutual assistance. They 






