Mason-bees

My Mason-bees head for the south as though some compass told them which way the wind was blowing.

The Mason-Bees Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

This would explain the homing of my Mason-bees carried to a distance of two or three miles amid strange surroundings.

The Mason-Bees Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

Anthidia laboriously provide numerous bales of cotton to stop galleries wherein never an egg was laid; I see Mason-bees build and then religiously close cells that will remain unvictualled and uncolonized.

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

When the sun goes down, the Mason-bees leave the nest and take refuge somewhere or other, perhaps under the tiles of the roofs, or in little corners of the walls.

The Mason-Bees Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

I have once more, as in the case of "The Mason-bees," to thank Miss

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

In this volume I have collected all the essays on Wild Bees scattered through the "Souvenirs entomologiques," with the exception of those on the Chalicodomae, or Mason-bees proper, which form the contents of a separate volume entitled "The Mason-bees."

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

These females spend the winter in their cells, as do many of the early-hatching melliferous insects, such as Anthophorae and Mason-bees, who build their nests in the spring, the larvae reaching the perfect state in the summer and yet remaining shut up in their cells until the following May.

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

The Osmiae make their partitions with mud or with a paste of chewed leaves; the Mason-bees build with cement; the Pelopaeus-wasps fashion clay pots; the Megachiles made disks cut from leaves into urns; the Anthidia felt cotton into purses; the Resin-bees cement together little bits of gravel with gum; the

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

Honey-gatherers -- Anthophorae, Osmiae, Mason-bees and many others -- usually first collect a sufficient stock of food and then, having laid the egg, shut up the cell, to which they need pay no more attention.

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

Why, yes: a free lodging suits her just as much as it does the various Mason-bees.

Bramble-Bees and Others Jean-Henri Fabre 1869