HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 445 



in the ground or in tlie trunk of a rotten willow-tree, 

 or occasionally in other decaying wood. This cavity 

 he fills with six or seven cells wholly composed of por- 

 tions of leaf, of the shape of a thinible, the convex end 

 of one closely fitting into the open end of another. Her 

 first process is to form the exterior coating, which is 

 composed of three or four pieces of larger dimensions 

 than the rest, and of an oval form. The second coat- 

 ing is formed of portions of equal size, narrow at one 

 end but gradually widening towards tlie other, where 

 the width equals half the length. One side of these 

 pieces is the serrate margin of the leaf from which it 

 was taken, which, as the pieces are made to lap one 

 over the other, is kept on the outside, and that which 

 has been cut within. The little animal now forms a 

 third coating of similar materials, the middle of Vvhich, 

 as the most skilful workman would do in similar cir- 

 cumstances, she places over the margins of those that 

 form the first tube, thus covering and strengthening 

 the junctures. Repeating the same process, she gives 

 a fourth and sometimes a fifth coating to her nest, 

 taking care, at the closed end or narrow extremity of 

 the cell, to bend the leaves so as to form a convex termi- 

 nation. Having thus finished a cell, her next business 

 is to fill it to within half a line of the orifice, v,[th a 

 rose-coloured conserve composed of honey and pollen, 

 usually collected from the flowers of thistles ; and then 

 liaving deposited her egg, she closes the orifice with 

 three pieces of leaf so exactly circular, that a pair of 

 compasses could not define their margin with more 

 truth; and coinciding so precisely with the walls of 

 the cell, as to be I'etained in their situation merely by 



