rilE MEG A CHILE. 249. 



through some narrow slit; so she goes off and cuts two more 

 circular pieces, and uses them as she did the first, and thus the 

 little cells are closed by three layers of leafy covering, and some- 

 times by a fourth. A second cell is constructed in the same 

 manner, and its end fits into the opening of the first, and thus 

 a series of eight or ten of them is usually found, looking like a 

 long tubular sleeve. When all this is completed, the eggs being 

 laid and the cells victualled, the Mcgachile closes the hole of its 

 perpendicular shaft with the earth which she dug out in the first 

 instance, and this is done so Vv^ell that there is no trace of it 



left. 



In the engraving the leaf-cutting bees are depicted cither in 

 flight, on the leaves, at work carrying the leaf to their hole, or 

 upon the ground, and one is completing a cell underground, on 

 the left hand side. 



There are some other bees which have three teeth to their 

 mandibles, and which, perhaps, are more particular in making up 

 their cells than the leaf cutters. They are called the flower 

 cutters, and one of them, which uses the poppy as its material, 

 is not very uncommon. AntJwcopa papavcris, which selects the 

 common scarlet poppy, is a small insect of a velvety black colour, 

 with a white down on the edges of the segments of the abdomen. 

 The female digs perpendicular holes in dry and sandy soils, and 

 pounds their sides so as to make them hard and lasting ; then it 

 searches for poppies, and cuts off pieces of their petals, choosing 

 the freshest, youngest, and the most beautiful flowers. The insect 

 flies off with the piece of scarlet stuff, introduces it into the hole, 

 and pushes it down. Of course the delicate tissue is ruffled 

 during this proceeding, but the bee presses it against the sides of 

 the hole, and works away until every fold is removed and the 

 gaudy tissue becomes perfectly smooth. Then three or four pieces 

 are cut off consecutively, and introduced into the hole and made 

 perfectly smooth, and, finally, the honey-cake and ^g^ are placed 

 inside this beautiful little piece of workmanship. Before closing 

 the hole the insect appears to remember the peculiar nature of the 

 soil in which it has made its cell, and in order to prevent any grains 

 of sand from falling upon the honey, the bee folds in the free ends 

 of the lining of the cell, just as a man would fold in the top of a 



