378 



THE STUDY OF INSECTS 



bees that are allied to them. In this family the tongue is long and there 

 are only two submarginal cells of approximately equal size in the fore 

 wings. Among the better-known representatives of the family are the 

 following. 



The leaf-cutter bees, Megachile. — The bees of the genus Megachile 

 have a curious habit of making cells for their young out of neatly-cut 

 pieces of leaves. These cells are packed away in such secure places that 

 one does not often find them; but it is a very easy thing to find frag- 

 ments of leaves from which the pieces have been cut by bees. The 





Fig. 629. — A leaf-cutter bee, MegachiU latimanus, its nest, and rose-leaves cut by the bee. 



leaves of various plants are used for this purpose, but rose-leaves are used 

 more frequently than any other kind. In Figure 629 there are repre- 

 sented one of these bees, its nest, and a spray of rose-leaves from which 

 pieces have been cut by the bee. 



The nests are made in various situations. The specimen figured was 

 taken from a piece of hemlock timber in which many of these bees had 

 bored tunnels to receive their cells. We have also found nests of these 

 bees in a tunnel in the ground under a stone, between shingles on a roof, 

 in the cavity of a large branch of sumac, in the cavity of a lead pipe, and 

 in Florida in the tubular leaves of a pitcher-plant. 



When a suitable tunnel has been made or found the bee proceeds to 

 build a thimble-shaped tube at the bottom of it. For this purpose it 

 cuts from leaves oblong pieces, each of which forms a part of a side and 

 the bottom of the thimble-shaped tube. Two such pieces had been cut 

 from the lower leaf on the left side of the spray figured here. When the 

 thimble-shaped tube is completed, the bee partially fills it with a paste of 

 pollen and honey, and then places an egg upon the supply of food. She 



