HYMEXOPTERA. 36/ 



These nests (Figs. 340 and 341) are filled ^\-ith cells of oblong form 

 arranged irregularly. At first sight they might be taken for little 

 lumps of earth plastered against the wall. When the perfect insect 

 emerges, it is obliged to soften the mortar with its saliva, and to remove 

 it, grain by grain, with its mandibles. The nests of Chalicodoinas are 

 common in the en\irons of Paris, on walls of rough stones exposed to 

 the south. They are often to be found in the parks of Zvleudon, of 

 Conflans, of Ve'sinet, &c. 



The Leaf-cutting Bees {Megachik) are not less worthy of remark in 

 their habits. These insects make their nests in tubes lined \\\\h the 

 leaves of the rose, the willow, the lilac, &c., placed in a cylindrical 

 burrow. Each nest contains generally from three to six cells, sepa- 

 rated by partitions of leaves. They cut off the pieces of leaves they 

 require with their mandibles, the notches 

 being wonderfully cleanly cut, as if they had 

 been done with a punch. 



They make as many as eight or ten 

 envelopes in succession vd\h the leaves, 



{■which, as they get dry, contract, keeping, 

 however, the fonn given to them by the 

 insect. The cells destined to receive the 

 'eggs acquire thus a certain solidit}^ Fig. 342 pj^ ^^^ 



represents the nest of the IMegachile. Gaikrj- ofaj^Andrena. 



The Upholsterer Bees (Anthocopas) line 

 their nests with the petals of flowers, as, for example {Papaver r/iceas), 

 the corn-poppy. Their burrows are made perpendicularly in the 

 beaten earth of roads, and each contains one solitary cell, lined with 

 portions of petals. When the egg has been laid at the bottom of 

 this cell, the bee fills up the rest of the hole with earth, to hide it 

 from notice. 



The Mining Bees {AndreiKZ) hollow out in the ground tubular gal- 

 leries (Fig. 343). They are not larger than ordinary flies. A great 

 number of other bees are known, but their habits are little under- 

 stood, and we shall not occupy ourselves about them. 



Wasps. 



Every one knows the wasps as a race of dangerous brigands which 

 ive by rapine, are incessantly fighting Battles, and which exist only to 



vey. The locks were in pretty constant use, so that the nests must have been built 

 n the course of a few A2Cj%.— Journal of Procccdmgs of the Ento77iological Society of 

 London, 1867, Ixxvi. — Ed. 



