NOTES ON ACULEATE HYMEXOPTERA. 37 



dwelling than any other suitable leaf or flower ; but we will 

 now proceed to detail our observations. 



Megachile maritima frequently selects the leaves of a 

 species of Salix for the outer-covering of her cells, but the 

 inner lining is a much more flexible and delicate leaf, such 

 as the laburnum ; at another time we have found her cells 

 composed of rose leaves for the outer coatings, but within 

 lined with the soft leaves of the Trefoil ; usually, the divisions 

 between the cells are formed of several circular pieces of leaf 

 Dlaced close together, but we have seen the sagacious crea- 

 ture cutting the thick leaves of the laurel, one circular piece 

 serving in the place of half a dozen cut from thinner and 

 more flexible leaves. On the sandhills at Deal, where, 

 during July and the beginning of August, Megachile argen- 

 tata is to be found burrowing in almost every mound, we 

 have had innumerable opportunities of examining its bur- 

 rows; we have usually found the cells composed outwardly 

 of the leaves of the Trefoil, but within, almost invariably, 

 of the yellow petals of Lotus corniculatus. We, however, 

 found the same species of bee burrowing in an enclosed 

 piece of ground, within two or three hundred yards of the 

 sandhills, lining her cells with the petals of the scarlet Gera- 

 nium, some plants of which grow along one side of the en- 

 closure, which is laid out as a flower-garden. 



MegacMIe centuncularis is perhaps the most widely dis- 

 tributed species of the genus, it is found in all J3arts of 

 Europe ; we have seen it burrowing in sandbanks and also 

 in decaying trees, posts and rails ; this species cuts the 

 leaves of the rose, the willow, the lilac, and of several other 

 trees and shrubs ; and, like the other species, selects softer 

 leaves for the inner lining of the cells. At Deal we observed 

 several individuals which had formed their burrows in an old 

 brick wall, we watched them in their flight to and from a 



