Bramble-bees and Others"In this volume I have collected all the essays on wild bees scattered through the Souvenirs entomologiques, with the exception of those on the mason-bees."--Translator's note. |
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Common terms and phrases
abdomen able Anthidia Anthidium Anthophora arrangement barricade Bee's bottom bramble bramble-dwellers bramble-stump build burrow cavities cells Chalicodoma chambers clay closed cocoons cotton cylinder Cylindrical Halictus diameter dihedral angle disks door dwelling females front gallery give glass tubes Gnat grub harvesting hatching heap honey Horned Osmia Hymenoptera inch.-Translator's Note insect instinct larva larvæ Lastly Latreille's Osmia laying Leaf-cutter leaves less lodging lopezia males mandibles Mason-bee Megachile ment millimetres mortar mother narrow never obtain occupied old nests orifice Osmiæ ovaries oviduct ovipositor parasite partitions passage Pebbles pieces plant plug pollen possess provisions pupa reed resin Resin-bee round Sérignan sexes shells short Shrubs side Snail Snail-shell space spacious species spiral spring storeys thing Three-horned Osmia Three-pronged Osmia tion tunnel turn victuals wall Wasps worker Zebra Halictus
Popular passages
Page 191 - Dear insects, my study of you has sustained me and continues to sustain me in my heaviest trials. I must take leave of you for today. The ranks are thinning around me and the long hopes have fled. Shall I be able to speak to you again?
Page 70 - Alcides' friend, and brother of the war ; Till, tired with toils, fair Italy he chose, And in Evander's palace sought repose. Now falling by another's wound, his eyes He casts to heaven, on Argos thinks, and dies.
Page 365 - Do you know the Halicti ? Perhaps not. There is no great harm done : it is quite possible to enjoy the few pleasures of life without knowing the Halicti. Nevertheless, when questioned with persistence, those humble creatures with no history can tell us some very singular things...
Page 193 - It is instinct and instinct alone that makes the mother build for a family which she will never see; that counsels the storing of provisions for the unknown offspring; that directs the sting towards the nerve-centres of the prey and skilfully paralyses it, so that the game may keep...
Page 397 - I know my village thoroughly, though I quitted it so long ago; and I know hardly anything of the towns to which the vicissitudes of life have brought me. An exquisitely sweet link binds us to our native soil ; we are like the plant that has to be torn away from the spot where it put out its first roots. Poor though it be, I should love to see my own village again; I should like to leave my bones there.
Page 443 - God, but extreme difficulty in living. With the little lucidity left to me, being able to do no other sort of observing, I observed myself dying; I watched with a certain interest the gradual falling to pieces of my poor machinery. Were it not for the terror of leaving my family, who were still young, I would gladly have departed. The after-life must have so many higher and fairer truths to teach us.
Page 391 - Well, if that just and mighty one held the earth under his thumb, would he hesitate whether he ought to crush it? He would not hesitate. . . . He would let things take their course. He would say to himself: "The old belief is right; the earth is a rotten apple, gnawed by the vermin of evil. It is a first crude attempt, a step towards a kindlier destiny. Let it be : order and justice are waiting at the end.
Page 443 - Hymenopteron, my fondest joy, and first of all of my neighbour, the Halictus. My son Emile took the spade and went and dug the frozen ground. Not a male was found, of course; but there were plenty of females, numbed with the cold .in their cells. A few were brought for me to see.
Page 391 - If war affected humanity alone, perhaps the future would have peace in store for us, seeing that generous minds are working for it with might and main ; but the scourge also rages in the brute, which, in its obstinate way, will never listen to reason. Once the evil is laid down as a general condition, it perhaps becomes incurable. Life in the future, there is every cause to fear, will be what it is to-day, a perpetual massacre. Whereupon, by a desperate effort of the imagination...