52 INSECT ARCHITECTUKE. 



curvilineal shape. To prevent any accident of this kind, 

 as soon as she suspects that her weight might tear it, she 

 poises herself on her wings, till she has completed the 

 incision. It has been said, by naturalists, that this ma- 

 noeuvre of poising herself on the wing, is to prevent her 

 falling to the ground, when the piece gives way; but as no 

 winged insect requires to take any such precaution, our 

 explanation is probably the true one. 



With the piece which she has thus cut out, held in a bent 

 position perpendicularly to her body, she flies off to her 

 nest, and fits it into the interior with the utmost neatness 

 and ingenuity ; and, without emplojdng any paste or glue, 

 she trusts, as Eeaumur ascertained, to the spring the leaf 

 takes in drying, to retain it in its position. It requires 

 from nine to twelve pieces of leaf to form one cell, as they 

 are not always of precisely the same thickness. The interior 

 surface of each cell consists of three pieces of leaf, of equal 

 size, narrow at one end, but gradually widening at the 

 other, where the width equals half the length. One side of 

 each of the pieces is the serrated margin of the leaf from 

 which it was cut, and this margin is always placed outer- 

 most, and the cut margin innermost. Like most insects, 

 she begins with the exterior, commencing with a layer of 

 tapestry, which is composed of three or four oval pieces, 

 larger in dimensions than the rest, adding a second and a 

 third layer proportionately smaller. In forming these, she 

 is careful not to place a joining opposite to a joining, but 

 with all the skill of a consummate artificer, laj^s the middle 

 of each piece of leaf over the margins of the others, so as 

 b}^ this means both to cover and strengthen the junctions. 

 By repeating this process, she sometimes forms a fourth or 

 a fifth layer of leaves, taking care to bend the leaves at the 

 narrow extremity or closed end of the cell, so as to bring 

 them into a convex shape. 



AYhen she has in this manner completed a cell, her next 

 business is to replenish it with a store of honey and pollen, 

 which, being chiefly collected from thistles, forms a beautiful 

 rose-coloured conserve. In this she deposits a single egg, 

 and then covers in the opening with three pieces of leaf, so 



