vi] LONG-POIOTED-TONGUED BEES 83 



incisions : directly the piece is free, by means of her 

 wings she saves herself from falling; takes (in the 

 case of a side-piece) a firm grip of the middle of one 

 of the short sides with her mandibles, thus making a 

 slight crease along the centre and folding down the 

 edges of the long sides ; with her six clawed feet, three 

 on each side of her burden, she holds the piece along 

 these edges securely under her body, and flies off to 

 her nest, looking like some large green insect as she 

 speeds through the air. The cells are stored with a 

 mixture of pollen and honey of such quality and 

 quantity that in some districts children dig out those 

 of M. maritima, and devour their contents. The sting 

 of this species, and indeed of all in this genus, is in- 

 capable of piercing the human epidermis. Fn districts 

 where leaf-cutters are plentiful, and they are fairly 

 common in most parts of England, it is a frequent 

 occurrence to find rose trees whose leaves have been 

 freely attacked : the work of a Megachile is always 

 recognisable by its neatness and regularity. I have 

 alluded above to the remarkable dilations of the 

 tarsal joints of the anterior legs of some males : this 

 peculiarity is very noticeable in M. maritima. The 

 use of these extraordinary outgrowths is not fully 

 known : I have observed that M. maritima is very 

 fond of "washing his face" with them, but this is not 

 an adequate explanation of their presence. 



Most of the leaf-cutters suffer from the attention 



62 



