This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...his valor, has an odd way of meeting these intruders when he is on guard. He turns tail, and pushes the point of his abdomen into the opening, an effective though seem DIAGRAM OF THE NESTING BURROW OF RALICTUS PRVW08VS, A SOLITARY BEE ingly not a valiant mode of defence. But, indeed, Sir Halictus is not to be blamed, ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 Excerpt: ...his valor, has an odd way of meeting these intruders when he is on guard. He turns tail, and pushes the point of his abdomen into the opening, an effective though seem DIAGRAM OF THE NESTING BURROW OF RALICTUS PRVW08VS, A SOLITARY BEE ingly not a valiant mode of defence. But, indeed, Sir Halictus is not to be blamed, for nature has denied him the fighting weapons with which the female is endowed; for in this sphere of life of which we are writing real Amazons are the rule, not the exception. One of the most dangerous and annoying of the Halictine foes is a small parasitic fly, Phora cam. This insect, on maternal duty bound, following the same instinct that sends the mother bee to the flowery fields, loiters at the Halictus gate. Now comes thither the burdened bee. She pauses a second at the door to pass the marital sentinel's challenge. It is enough! That pause is fatal. Swiftly the dipterous ovipositor thrusts a parasitic egg into the pollen mass, and the mother herself bears to her offspring's cradle the germ of death. So goes on to-day, and day by day forever, the old story of how the Trojans themselves brought into the walls of Troy the armed destroyers of their town! To these alien parasites one must add sundry species of guest bees, who rear their offspring at the expense of the hard working Halictus and Andrena. They bear the popular name of "cuckoo bees," and fittingly, since they image on a smaller scale the habit of that rather disreputable bird to foist upon nobler birds its eggs, the offspring from which grow up to oust its mates from MALE HALICTUS BEE GUARDING HIS BURROW AGAINST PlluRJ CJKA, A PARASITIC FLY their own parents' nest. But, for that matter, one might get quite as apt a name from the annals of our own race, and not go far ...
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