The Mason Bees Review

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(More customer reviews)The Mason-Bees written by J. Henri Fabre.The book was published in 1925 by Garden City Publishing Company in Garden City, New York.It was translated by Alexander Teixeira De Mattos, who was a fellow of the zoological society of London.The book contains a total of 315 pages not including the introduction. J. Henri Fabre was a teacher of chemistry and physics.He devoted his life to the study of insects.He wrote many other books including: The life of the caterpillar, The life of the Spider, Animal life in field and Garden, Life of the fly and The Insect world J. Henri Fabre.
The Mason-Bees starts out as a story about a teacher, who as part of his teachings brings his students out into the field for field experiments.The curiosity of his students on bees inspires his own mind into the workings of the bees in his area.This spark inspires him to start the study of his bee subjects.He begins to tell the reader of his observations, experiments, and study into other insects and animals that relate to his study of bees.
The author starts by telling the readers of his daily and general observations of bees.He goes into great detail of the complexity and strength of the nests that are built by the bees in his hometown.He describes to us the process they go through in the reproduction process.The building of the nest, the gathering of food, the laying of the eggs and defense were written in detailed. The classification of the different bees observed was also given by the author.
In order to learn more about the bees, the author begins his experiments with the removal of the bees from their nest.He wanted to see if the bees would be able to find their way back from a distance of about two and a half miles.He does this by marking the bees and letting them go to see if they would find there way back.These experiments showed that most of the bees were able to find their way back.He did many more different types of experiments on the bees in order to supplement his theory on their behavior.Most of his experiments were centered on finding out how they are able to find their way back to their nest.
The author also relates his studiesthrough the study of other insects like ants and parasites of the bees and even cats.His main aim was to find out more about the instinct of the bees being able to find its home from great distance.He takes suggestion from general people (non- scientist) and from the great Charles Darwin himself as part of his process.He goes on to show how the suggestions from all these people didn't work and how he learned from them.
The book was very well written and easy to understand for a reader, who does not have a lot of knowledge on bees.It was interesting to see the perspective of a scientist studying insects in the late 1800's.The author was a reliable scientist because he did not jump to conclusions quickly but did more experiments to prove a lot of his statements.He shows this by getting help and opinions from other people in his study.The book does provide knowledge but it is a little outdated due to all the information that we have now on bees and insects in general.The author does however impose his own opinion on mimicry and parasites to the readers in this book.Overall, the book was great because it provided a lot of information but also has entertainments value.It was not straight through about bees but also was about other insects and even cats out of all things.

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Product Description:
This volume contains all the essays on the Chalicodomae, or Mason-bees proper, which so greatly enhance the interest of the early volumes of the "Souvenirs entomologiques." I have also included an essay on the author's Cats and one on Red Ants—the only study of Ants comprised in the "Souvenirs"—both of which bear upon the sense of direction possessed by the Bees. Those treating of the Osmiae, who are also Mason-Bees, although not usually known by that name, will be found in a separate volume, which I have called "Bramble-bees and Others" and in which I have collected all that Fabre has written on such other Wild Bees as the Megachiles, or Leaf-cutters, the Cotton-bees, the Resin-bees and the Halicti.The essays entitled "The Mason-bees, Experiments" and "Exchanging the Nests" form the last three chapters of "Insect Life", translated by the author of "Mademoiselle Mori" and published by Messrs. Macmillan, who, with the greatest courtesy and kindness have given me their permission to include a new translation of these chapters in the present volume. They did so without fee or consideration of any kind, merely on my representation that it would be a great pity if this uniform edition of Fabre's Works should be rendered incomplete because certain essays formed part of volumes of extracts previously published in this country. Their generosity is almost unparalleled in my experience; and I wish to thank them publicly for it in the name of the author, of the French publishers and of the English and American publishers, as well as in my own.Some of the chapters have appeared in England in the "Daily Mail", the "Fortnightly Review" and the "English Review"; some in America in "Good Housekeeping" and the "Youth's Companion"; others now see the light in English for the first time.I have again to thank Miss Frances Rodwell for the invaluable assistance which she has given me in the work of translation and in the less interesting and more tedious department of research.CONTENTS.TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.CHAPTER 1. THE MASON-BEES.CHAPTER 2. EXPERIMENTS.CHAPTER 3. EXCHANGING THE NESTS.CHAPTER 4. MORE ENQUIRIES INTO MASON-BEES.CHAPTER 5. THE STORY OF MY CATS.CHAPTER 6. THE RED ANTS.CHAPTER 7. SOME REFLECTIONS UPON INSECT PSYCHOLOGY.CHAPTER 8. PARASITES.CHAPTER 9. THE THEORY OF PARASITISM.CHAPTER 10. THE TRIBULATIONS OF THE MASON-BEE.CHAPTER 11. THE LEUCOPSES.

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