BEE. 
315 
ties extend several inches in length and are about 
the third of an inch in diameter, and is marked 
into separate spaces, each of the length of three 
quarters of an inch. When the tube is properly 
finished the animal proceeds to line each of the 
above-mentioned spaces with rose-leaves rolled 
over each other, the bottom of each being formed 
by several circular pieces of these leaves placed im- 
mediately over each other to a sufficient thickness. 
The animal then deposits an egg at the bottom, 
and having left in the cell a sufficient quantity of 
a kind of honey for the nourishment of the young 
larva when hatched, proceeds to close the top with 
circular bits of rose-leaf; and thus proceeding, 
finishes the whole series. This is usually done 
towards the close of summer, and the young having 
passed the period of their larva state, change into 
that of chrysalis, and remain the whole winter, 
pot making their appearance till pretty late in the 
ensuing season. , This bee is about the size of the 
common or honey-bee, but shorter and broader- 
bodied in proportion, and is of a dusky colour 
above, the lower parts being covered with a bright- 
ferruginous down or hair*. In seasons when this 
species happens to be plentiful it does consider- 
able injury to the trees which it attacks; large 
trunks of apparently healthy oaks having been 
found very materially injured by the numerous 
trains of cells distributed through it in dilfereiit 
*■ Mr. Kirby, in his Monographia, considers this species as 
distinct from the real centunculuris, and names it Apis ligmscea. 
