e Chalicodoma of the Shrubs, she is smaller still; and, if some
nomenclator were to seek to describe her, she would no longer deserve
to be called more than middling. From dimension 2 she has descended to
dimension 1 without ceasing to be the same insect, despite the change
of diet; and at the same time both sexes are present in the three
nurselings, despite the variation in the quantity of victuals.

I obtain Anthrax sinuata ("The Mason-bees": chapters 8, 10 and
11.--Translator's Note.) from various bees' nests. When she issues from
the cocoons of the Three-horned Osmia, especially the female cocoons,
she attains the greatest development that I know of. When she issues
from the cocoons of the Blue Osmia (O. cyanea, KIRB.), she is sometimes
hardly one-third the length which the other Osmia gives her. And
we still have the two sexes--that goes without saying--and still
identically the same species.

Two Anthidia, working in resin, A. septemdentatum, LATR., and A.
bellicosum, LEP. (For these Resin-bees, cf. "Bramble-bees and Others":
chapter 10.--Translator's Note.), establish their domicile in old
Snail-shells. The second harbours the Burnt Zonitis (Z. proeusta (Cf.
"The Glow-worm and Other Beetles": chapter 6.--Translator's Note.)).
Amply nourished this Meloe then acquires her normal size, the size in
which she usually figures in the collections. A like prosperity awaits
her when she usurps the provisions of Megachile sericans. (For this
Bee, the Silky Leaf-cutter, cf. "Bramble-bees and Others": chapter
8.--Translator's Note.) But the imprudent creature sometimes allows
itself to be carried away to the meagre table of the smallest of
our Anthidia (A. scapulare, LATR. (A Cotton-bee, cf. idem: chapter
9.--Translator's Note.)), who makes her nests in dry bramble-stems. The
scanty fare makes a wretched dwarf of the offspring belonging to either
sex, without depriving them of any of their racial features. We still
see the Burnt Zonitis, with the distinctive sign of the species: the
singed patch at the tip of the wing-cases.

And the other Meloidae--Cantharides, Cerocomae, Mylabres (For these
Blister-beetles or Oil-beetles, cf. "The Glow-worm and Other Beetles":
chapter 6.--Translator's Note.)--to what inequalities of size are
they not subject, irrespective of sex! There are some--and they are
numerous--whose dimensions fall to a half, a third, a quarter of the
regular dimensions. Among these dwarfs, these misbegotten ones,