INSECT LIFE IN INDIA. 



069 



Xylocopa chloraptera is the common carpenter bee of East India, 

 Burma, Moulmein, &c, which selects hollow bamboos for its cells ; it 

 connects together the pieces cut out of the interior partitions of the 

 bamboo, using them as horizontal partitions inside the bamboo to 

 separate the internal cavity into cells. This species is much infested 

 with a small Chalcid parasite (Encyrtus), of which as-many as 300 speci- 

 mens of the fly have been bred from a single larva of the bee. 



The group DASYGASTRES includes the mason and leaf-cutting 

 bees in which the ventral surface of the hind body is densely set in the 

 females with regularly arranged hairs by which the pollen is carried. 

 In many, as in Megachile, the labium is very large and in repose is 

 deflected on to the lower side of the head. This group includes some of 



the most interesting and perhaps to the 

 general public some of the best known of the 

 solitary bees. The mason and leaf-cutting 

 bees are well-known in India. 



The leaf-cutting bees cut lon^ or circular 



Fig. 60.—M<:gachile portions out of green leaves to form the 



anthracina. The leaf -cut- . „ . . .. . „ , T 



ting bee. (United Provinces.) partitions ot tneir cells. A well-known Indian 



one is Megachile anthracina (fasciculatis) depicted in Fig. 60. It cuts 

 long pieces out of rose or pulse 

 leaves and forms its cells of 

 these, a circular piece being cut 

 to serve as the lid. These cells 

 resemble an ordinary-sized thim- 

 ble. Home states that in one 

 specimen examined by him 

 thirty-two pieces of leaf disposed 

 in seven layers were used for 

 one cell, in addition to three 

 circular pieces for the lid. 

 Some kind of gummy material 

 is believed to be used to keep in 

 place the pieces forming the 

 interior layer. This is not how- 

 ever invariably the case as in a 

 species found by the writer in a 



tunnel in blue pine wood in the 



18 



Fig, 61.— Nest of the leaf-cutting bee, 31. 

 anthracina. A, a section of a separated cell 

 with lid raised; larvae (a) nesting on the 

 food. B, portion of a row of cells. (After 

 Home). 



