440 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



She is too large for bramble-stem exploration, and does not appear to relish hard, 

 manual labour such as is involved in digging a shaft in the earth ; so she looks out 

 for the disused tunnel of some other Insect, such as the musk-beetle or the goat-moth, 

 and appropriates it to her own use. This is the Insect to \\hich (lilbcrt White 

 refers in the following passage, though he did not know its name : --" There is a 

 sort of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for the sake of its tomentum, 

 which probably it turns to some purpose in the business of nidification. It is very 

 pleasant to see with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the 

 bottom of a branch, and shax'ing it bare with the dexteritv of a hoo])-shaver. When 

 it has got a bundle, almost as large as itself, it flies awa\', holding it secure between 

 its chin and its fore-legs." 



In addition to the plant mentioned by White, the carder-bee gathers her 

 cotton-wool from the corn-cockle, the (]uince, and other plants with downy leaves 

 and stems. With this she lines the cavity selected for her operations, and forms 



Photo hy 



[li. Baxlm. Photos by] 



[H. Main, F.Ii.S. 



Egg. Grub. Chrysalis. 



I'l this series of photographs is shown what the cells of the leaf-cutter bee contain at different ])eriods. Before the cell is closed an 

 egg i- laid on the nii.\tureof pollen and honey upon which the grub is to feed. In the second photograph the full-grown grub is shown 

 in its cell after having disposed of the food-supply. The third photograph shows a cell cut open after the grub has changed to the 

 chrysalis. 



her cells in it, coating the inside of the cells with cement to enable them to hokl 

 the pollen-honey mixture with which she next stores them. Tins is the onl\- r.ritisli 

 species, and here it is restricted to the southern parts of England, but there are 

 others on the Continent. Fabre has described the work of one of them ^ which 

 forms its nest in hollow reeds, much after \hv fashion adopted by our species. The 

 grub, b(>fore joupation, constructs a cococ^n of its own excrement connected bv 

 silk. At one end it is provided with a perforated conical extension, which Fabre 

 surmises to be for the admission of air. Two other species utilize emptv snail- 

 shells for nesting places. One of these ^ only uses the broader body-whorl of the 

 shell, shutting off the narrower portion by a wall of resin collected from plants. 

 The other ^ uses the narrower whorls and leaves the body-whorl vacant ; in con- 

 sequence it sometimes hap])ens that a s])ecies of osmia builds her nest in the mouth 

 of the shell and blocks up the carder-bee. As the latter is ready to leave its cell 

 before the osmia has completed its transformations, it dies a prisoner in its cell. 



^ Anthidiuni diuilenia. - A. scplcmdentatiim. » A. bcllicosuin. 



