ROADSIDE LIFE. 



267 



The leaf-cutter bees do not always bore tunnels in 

 which to place their cells. We have found these 

 cells in a crack between shingles on a roof, in the 

 cavity of a large branch of sumach, beneath stones 

 lying on the ground, and, in Florida, in the tubular 

 leaves of the pitcher-plant. 



Some species of bees make nests similar to those 

 of the leaf-cutter bees, except that the cells are 

 formed of pieces of petals of flowers. The petals of 

 Pelargonium are often used for this purpose. 



THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 



There are many bees, wasps, and digger-wasps 

 that build their nests in the sides of cliffs, reminding 

 one of the habitations built 

 by certain communities of 

 Indians in the far West. 

 The insect cliff - dwellers 

 prefer sandy cliffs, and it 

 often happens that a sand- 

 bank becomes so thickly 

 studded with the burrows 

 of these insects that it looks 

 as if it had been used as a 

 target for practice with a 

 shotgun. 



The most abundant of 

 these cliff-dwellers are the 

 minute bees belonging to the genus Halictus (Ha-lic'- 

 tus). These are the smallest of all our bees, measur- 

 ing only from one tenth to three tenths of an inch in 

 length. Great numbers of them can be seen during 

 the warmer parts of the day, flying back and forth, 

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