as is proved by the assiduity of the
males during the preceding two months and most positively confirmed by
the couples discovered in the course of my excavations. 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. But
there is this great difference in the case of the Cylindrical Halictus,
that in the autumn the females leave their cells for a time to receive
the males under ground. The couples pair and the males perish. Left
alone, the females return to their cells, where they spend the inclement
season.

The Zebra Halicti, studied first at Orange and then, under better
conditions, at Serignan, in my own enclosure, have not these
subterranean customs: they celebrate their weddings amid the joys of
the light, the sun and the flowers. I see the first males appear in the
middle of September, on the centauries. Generally there are several of
them courting the same bride. Now one, then another, they swoop upon her
suddenly, clasp her, leave her, seize hold of her again. Fierce brawls
decide who shall possess her. One is accepted and the others decamp.
With a swift and angular flight, they go from flower to flower, without
alighting. They hover on the wing, looking about them, more intent on
pairing than on eating.

The Early Halictus did not supply me with any definite information,
partly through my own fault, partly through the difficulty of excavation
in a stony soil, which calls for the pick-axe rather than the spade. I
suspect her of having the nuptial customs of the Cylindrical Halictus.

There is another difference, which causes certain variations of detail
in these customs. In the autumn, the females of the Cylindrical Halictus
leave their burrows seldom or not at all. Those who do go out invariably
come back after a brief halt upon the flowers. All pass the winter in
the natal cells. On the other hand, those of the Zebra Halictus move
their quarters, meet the males outside and do not return to the burrows,
which my autumn excavations always find deserted. They hibernate in the
first hiding-places that offer.

In the spring, the females, fecundated since the autumn, come out:
the Cylindrical Halicti from their cells, the Zebra Halicti from their
various shelters, the Early Hal