438 



Marvels of Insect Life* 



consists of pollen to which sufficient honey is added to enable the bee to knead 

 it into a pasty lump. Prosopis is without the usual pollen-collecting apparatus 

 on the hind-legs ; and for this reason it was long suspected to be of parasitical 

 habits. But though parasitism has been shown by Mr. R. C. L. Perkins to be indulged 

 in by some of the numerous Hawaian species, the charge does not lie against our 

 native species. It is now shown that they are of rather primitive organization, 

 and have to bring home their pollen and hone}' mixed — in their interiors — and 

 regurgitate it for the storing of their cells. The mixture being more liquid in 

 character, the cells are liricd to make them waterproof for the holding of it. For 

 the purpose of laying on the lining secretion, the tongue is specially developed into a 

 somewhat triangular organ, broad in front. 



In the neighbouring genus colletes, although the bees make their burrows 



in the ground, their cells are lined with the same 

 material. They are less primitive than prosopis, 

 and have the legs well clothed with hairs, but they 

 have a similar shaped tongue, and mix a good deal 

 of honey with their pollen. They bring home a 

 great quantity of pollen on their legs, but this is 

 mixed in the cells with so much honey that, accord- 

 ing to Shuckard, the mass ferments, but is never- 

 theless consumed bv the grub without any ill 

 results, the more liquid portion being consumed 

 first, the more solid later. Speaking of the up- 

 holstery work, this author says : " The beauty 

 with which these cells are formed transcends 

 conception. Each consists of a succession of layers 

 of a membrane more delicate than the thinnest 

 gold-beater's skin, and more lustrous than the most 

 beautiful satin. In glitter it much resembles the 

 trail left by the snail, and is evidently, from all 

 experiments made, a secretion of the Insect 

 elaborated from some special food it consumes, 

 and by means of its bilobated tongue, which it uses 

 as a trowel, it plasters with it the sides and the 

 bottom of the tube it has excavated to the extent necessary for one division. As 

 this secretion dries rapidly to a membrane it is succeeded by others to the number 

 of three or four, which may be separated from each other by careful manipulation. 

 It then stores this cell, deposits the egg, and proceeds to close it with a covercle 

 of double the nvmiber of membranes with which the sidt's are furnished, and lonlinues 

 with another hi a similar manner, until it has completed sufiicient to fill the tubular 

 cavity, which, after closing the last case similarly to the rest, it stops up the orifice 

 with grains of sand or earth." 



The carder-bee ^ is one of the upholsterers that go abroad for their materials, 

 and her decoration takes more the character of tapestry. She is a larger bee than 

 those just named, her l)odv liall' an inch long, and the spread of wings an inch. 



' .Vnthidiiini manicatiim. 



I'hido hy. i/y. liaslni. 



A Leaf-cutter's Cell. 



A single cell tk'taclicd and enlarged to show how 

 the leaves are curved and folded to get the form 

 required. The photograph is about three times 

 larger than the actual size. 



