444 HABITATIONS OF IMSECTS. 



over the poppy lining so that even the roof may be of 

 this material; and lastly closes its mouth with a small 

 hillock of earth*. The great depth of the cell com- 

 pared with the space which the single egg- and the ac- 

 companying- food deposited in it occupy, deserves par- 

 ticular notice. This is not more than half an inch at 

 the bottom, the remaining two inches and a half being 

 subsequently filled with earth. — When you next favour 

 me with a visit, I can show you the cells of this inter- 

 esting insect as yet unknown to British entomologists, 

 for which I am indebted to the kindness ofM. Latreille, 

 who first scientifically described the species^. 



Apis centuncidaris^ A. Willughbiella^ and other spe- 

 cies of the same family, like the preceding, cover the 

 walls of their cells with a coating of leaves, but are 

 content with a more sober colour, generally selecting 

 for their hangings the leaves of trees, especially of the 

 rose, whence they have been known by the name of the 

 leaf-cuiter bees. They differ also from A. Papaveris in 

 excavating longer burrows, and filling them with se- 

 veral thimble-shaped cells composed of portions of 

 leaves so curiously convoluted, that, if we were igno- 

 rant in what school they have been taught to construct 

 them, we should never credit their being the work of 

 an insect. Their entertaining history, so long ago as 

 1670, attracted the attention of our countrymen Ray, 

 Lister, Willughby, and Sir Edward King; but we are 

 indebted for the most complete account of their pro- 

 cedures to Reaumur. 



The mother bee first excavates a cylindrical hole 

 eight or ten inches long, in a horizontal direction, either 



' Reauin vi. 139-14S. " Latr. Hist. Nut. dcs Founnis, 297. 



