If he is a trifle smaller, it is scarcely noticeable, whereas, in the Horned Osmia and the Three-horned Osmia, the male is only half or a third the size of the female, as we have seen from the respective bulk of their cocoons.

In the Mason-bee of the Walls there is also a difference in size, though less pronounced.
The Three-pronged Osmia has not therefore to trouble about adjusting the dimensions of the dwelling and the quantity of the food to the sex of the egg which she is about to lay; the measure is the same from one end of the series to the other.

It does not matter if the sexes alternate without order: one and all will find what they need, whatever their position in the row.

The two other Osmiae, with their great disparity in size between the two sexes, have to be careful about the twofold consideration of board and lodging.
The more I thought about this curious question, the more probable it appeared to me that the irregular series of the Three-pronged Osmia and the regular series of the other Osmiae and of the Bees in general were all traceable to a common law.

It seemed to me that the arrangement in a succession first of females and then of males did not account for everything.