icti apparently from their chambers, like
the first. They work at their nests in the absence of any male, as do
also the Social Wasps, whose whole brood has perished excepting a few
mothers also fecundated in the autumn. In both cases, the assistance of
the males is equally real, only it has preceded the laying by about six
months.

So far, there is nothing new in the life of the Halicti; but here is
where the unexpected appears: in July, another generation is produced;
and this time without males. The absence of masculine assistance is no
longer a mere semblance here, due to an earlier fecundation: it is a
reality established beyond a doubt by the continuity of my observations
and by my excavations during the summer season, before the emergence of
the new Bees. At this period, a little before July, if my spade unearth
the cells of any one of my three Halicti, the result is always females,
nothing but females, with exceedingly rare exceptions.

True, it may be said that the second progeny is due to the mothers who
knew the males in autumn and who would be able to nidify twice a year.
The suggestion is not admissible. The Zebra Halictus confirms what
I say. She shows us the old mothers no longer leaving the home but
mounting guard at the entrance to the burrows. No harvesting- or
pottery-work is possible with these absorbing doorkeeping-functions.
Therefore there is no new family, even admitting that the mothers'
ovaries are not depleted.

I do not know if a similar argument is valid in the case of the
Cylindrical Halictus. Has she any general survivors? As my attention
had not yet been directed on this point in the old days, when I had
the insect at my door, I have no records to go upon. For all that, I
am inclined to think that the portress of the Zebra Halictus is unknown
here. The reason of this absence would be the number of workers at the
start.

In May, the Zebra Halictus, living by herself in her winter retreat,
founds her house alone. When her daughters succeed her, in July, she is
the only grandmother in the establishment and the post of portress falls
to her. With the Cylindrical Halictus, the conditions are different.
Here the May workers are many in the same burrow, where they dwell in
common during the winter. Supposing that they survive when the business
of the household is finished, to whom will the office of overseer fall?
Their number is so great and they are all so full of zeal that disorder
would