efore is my surprise as I watch the Cylindrical Halictus'
operations. She forms no society, in the entomological sense of the
word: there is no common family; and the general interest does not
engross the attention of the individual. Each mother occupies herself
only with her own eggs, builds cells and gathers honey only for her own
larvae, without concerning herself in any way with the upbringing of the
others' grubs. All that they have in common is the entrance-door and
the goods-passage, which ramifies in the ground and leads to different
groups of cells, each the property of one mother. Even so, in the blocks
of flats in our large towns, one door, one hall and one staircase lead
to different floors or different portions of a floor where each family
retains its isolation and its independence.

This common right of way is extremely easy to perceive at the time for
victualling the nests. Let us direct our attention for a while to the
same entrance-aperture, opening at the top of a little mound of earth
freshly thrown up, like that accumulated by the Ants during their works.
Sooner or later we shall see the Halicti arrive with their load of
pollen, gathered on the Cichoriaceae of the neighbourhood.

Usually, they come up one by one; but it is not rare to see three, four
or even more appearing at the same time at the mouth of one burrow.
They perch on the top of the mound and, without hurrying in front of one
another, with no sign of jealousy, they dive down the passage, each
in her turn. We need but watch their peaceful waiting, their tranquil
dives, to recognize that this indeed is a common passage to which each
has as much right as another.

When the soil is exploited for the first time and the shaft sunk slowly
from the outside to the inside, do several Cylindrical Halicti, one
relieving the other, take part in the work by which they will afterwards
profit equally? I do not believe it for a moment. As the Zebra Halictus
and the Early Halictus told me later, each miner goes to work alone and
makes herself a gallery which will be her exclusive property. The common
use of the passage comes presently, when the site, tested by experience,
is handed down from one generation to another.

A first group of cells is established, we will suppose, at the bottom of
a pit dug in virgin soil. The whole thing, cells and pit, is the work of
one insect. When the moment comes to leave the underground dwelling, the
Bees emerging from