XXVI. 



A CURIOUS INSTANCE OF THE LAROUR-SAYINO INSTINCT 

 IN THE LEAF-CUTTING BEES. 



By Atjbeet C. Stotel. 



Read at Watford, lOth April, 1900. 



On the 5th of August I noticed some leaf-cutting bees flying 

 around the open ends of a lot of bamboo-canes which had been put 

 iu the greenhouse to keep the plants upright. The canes were put 



s 



in the earth after this fashion : I h I h 1)2, and 3 



EARTH 



being canes, of which No. 3 had the ends open, wherein the bees 

 kept entering and coming out again. 



At the time I thought nothing of it, but on the 9th of August, 

 when making an investigation of the canes, I found the bees 

 going into the hollow ends with pieces of leaves and presently 

 returning without them. I let them remain undisturbed for a few 

 days. On making my second investigation I found that the 

 canes were filled up to the top with round pieces of the petals of 

 the red geranium and rose-leaves, and, cutting one of the canes 

 just above the first knot, I cut through a case of honey and pollen 

 which had been bound up in pieces of leaves. This led to 

 a further examination, which showed several canes to have been 

 treated in a similar manner, as far as the first knot. 



A leaf-cutting bee generally excavates a cylindrical hole about 

 seven to ten inches in length, in a horizontal direction, either 

 in the ground or in the trunk of a rotten tree, and sometimes in 

 other decaying wood. This cavity she fills with cells completely 

 composed of portions of leaves in the shape of a thimble, the 

 convex end of one piece fitting closely into the open end of another. 

 The first process is to form the exterior coating, which is composed 

 of three or four pieces, of larger extent than the rest and of an 

 oval form. 



The second coating is formed of portions of uniform size, narrow 

 at one end but gradually widening towards the other, where the 

 width is supposed to equal half the length. One side of these 

 pieces is the serrate margin of the leaf from which it was taken, 

 which, as the pieces are made to lap over one another, is kept 

 on the outside, and that which has been cut within. 



The bee now forms a third coating of similar materials, of which 

 she places the middle over the margins of those which form the 

 first case, thus covering and strengthening the junctures. Having 

 finished a cell, her next business is to fill it. She fills it 

 (according to accounts) within half a line of the orifice with 

 a brownish-red conserve of an agreeable odour, composed of honey 



