The Girdled Dioxys (D. cincta) loves the ample honey-stores of the Chalicodoma of the Pebbles. There she finds abundant food, so abundant that she cannot eat it all. I have already passed censure on this waste. (Cf. "The Mason-bees": chapter 10.--Translator's Note.) Now a little Osmia (O. cyanoxantha, Perez) makes her nest in the Mason's deserted cells; and this Bee, a victim of her ill-omened dwelling, also harbours the Dioxys. This is a manifest error on the parasite's part. The nest of the Chalicodoma, the hemisphere of mortar on its pebble, is what she is looking for, to confide her eggs to it. But the nest is now occupied by a stranger, by the Osmia, a circumstance unknown to the Dioxys, who comes stealing up to lay her egg in the mother's absence. The dome is familiar to her. She could not know it better if she had built it herself. Here she was born; here is what her family wants. Moreover, there is nothing to arouse her suspicions: the outside of the home has not changed its appearance in any respect; the stopper of gravel and green putty, which later will form a violent contrast with its white front, is not yet constructed. She goes in and sees a heap of honey. To her thinking this can be nothing but the Chalicodoma's portion. We ourselves would be beguiled, in the Osmia's absence. She lays her eggs in this deceptive cell. Her mistake, which is easy to understand, does not in any way detract from her great talents as a parasite, but it is a serious matter for the future larva. The Osmia, in fact, in view of her small dimensions, collects but a very scanty store of food: a little loaf of pollen and honey, hardly the size of an average pea. Such a ration is insufficient for the Dioxys. I have described her as a waster of food when her larva is established, according to custom, in the cell of the Mason-bee. This description no longer applies; not in the very least. Inadvertently straying to the Osmia's table, the larva has no excuse for turning up its nose; it does not leave part of the food to go bad; it eats up the lot without having had enough. This famine-stricken refectory can give us nothing but an abortion. As a matter of fact, the Dioxys subjected to this niggardly test does not die, for the parasite must have a tough constitution to enable it to face the disastrous hazards which lie in wait for it; but it attains barely half its ordinary dimensions, which means one-eighth of its normal bulk. To see it thus diminished, we are surprised at its tenacious vitality, which enables it to reach the adult form in spite of the extreme deficiency of food. Meanwhile, this adult is still the Dioxys; there is no change of any kind in her shape or colouring. Moreover, the two sexes are represented; this family of pigmies has its males and females. Dearth and the farinaceous mess in the Osmia's cell has had no more influence over species or sex than abundance and flowing honey in the Chalicodoma's home.