Upholsterer Bees. 



441 



4 



But the bees that are most fuhy entitled to the name of upholsterers are the 

 leaf-cutter bees.^ These have long been known, not only to naturalists, but also 

 to everyone who has grown roses, for every rose-garden furnishes evidence of the 

 skill with which these bees cut out circular and oval pieces for the lining of their 

 cells. Sometimes the foliage of one particular rose-tree is specially attacked, and 

 the rose-grower who takes pride in the general perfection of his plants — leaf as well 

 as flower — is rather emphatic in his denunciation of the " pest " that has wrouglit 

 this havoc. All the leaf-cutters, however, do not select rose-leaves for their purpose; 

 the species that do so mostly are Willughby's lenf-cuttcr - and tlie ]vitc1i\\ork leaf- 

 cutter.'"^ The 

 li r s t - n a m e d 

 usually makes 

 its nest b y 

 boring deep 

 wells in the 

 soft wood of an 

 old willow, and 

 sometimes in- 

 stead of 

 rose-leaves 

 selects those 

 of the labur- 

 num for its 

 depredations. 

 The manner in 

 w^hich most of 

 the species 

 work has been 

 well described 

 by Shuckard. 

 He says: 

 "Having fixed 

 upon the pre- 

 ferred })lant, /'/,../.. /n, [H. Bastin. 



1 1 Nest of Leaf-cutting Bki;. 



rosc-Dusli or , ^. . , . . , . , , , , ^ ^ ,■ , ■ , u r 



In this case instead of soft decaying wood the tunnel has been bored in hving wood — that of a small chcrrv 

 laburnum or tn-c, and packed with cells. Two separated cells are seen in the lower li'ft-hand corner of the photograph. 



sallow, or wiiatever it ma\' be, it alights uj)()n the leaf, and li.xing itself upon the 

 edge, it holds it with three legs on each side, then using its mandibles as the cutter 

 of silhouettes would his scissors, and just as rapidly as he cuts out a profile, does 

 this ingenious little creature plv the tools it is furnished with by nature. The oval 

 or semicircular cutting being thus speedily dispatched, witii the legs still clinging 

 to the surfaces, the Insect biting its wav backwards, the pii'ce cut off necessarilv 

 remains within the clutch of the legs, and, when about falling, the rejoicing labourer 

 expands her wings and flies off with it with a hum of deliglitful triumph, the cutting 

 being carried perpendicularly to her body. In a diret~t liiie she wings her way to 



1 Mciiacliile. - .M. uillughhiiila. ^ .M. ceutunciilaris. 



