THE MEGACHILE. 249 
through some narrow slit; so she goes off and cuts two more 
circular pieces, and uses them as she did the first, and thus the 
little cells are closed by three layers of leafy covering, and some- 
times by a fourth. A second cell is constructed in the same 
manner, and its end fits into the opening of the first, and thus 
a series of eight or ten of them is usually found, looking like a 
long tubular sleeve. When all this is completed, the eggs being 
laid and the cells victualled, the AZegachile closes the hole of its 
perpendicular shaft with the earth which she dug out in the first 
instance, and this is done so well that there is no trace of it 
left. 
In the engraving the leaf-cutting bees are depicted either in 
flight, on the leaves, at work carrying the leaf to their hole, or 
upon the ground, and one is completing a cell underground, on 
the left hand side. 
There are some other bees which have three teeth to their 
mandibles, and which, perhaps, are more particular in making up 
their cells than the leaf cutters. They are called the flower 
cutters, and one of them, which uses the poppy as its material, 
is not very uncommon. Axthocopa papaveris, which selects the 
common scarlet poppy, is a small insect of a velvety black colour, 
with a white down on the edges of the segments of the abdomen. 
The female digs perpendicular holes in dry and sandy soils, and 
pounds their sides so as to make them hard and lasting; then it 
searches for poppies, and cuts off pieces of their petals, choosing 
the freshest, youngest, and the most beautiful flowers. The insect 
flies off with the piece of scarlet stuff, introduces it into the hole, 
and pushes it down. Of course the delicate tissue is ruffled 
during this proceeding, but the bee presses it against the sides of 
the hole, and works away until every fold is removed and the 
gaudy tissue becomes perfectly smooth. Then three or four pieces 
are cut off consecutively, and introduced into the hole and made 
perfectly smooth, and, finally, the honey-cake and egg are placed 
inside this beautiful little piece of workmanship. Before closing 
the hole the insect appears to remember the peculiar nature of the 
soil in which it has made its cell, and in order to prevent any grains 
of sand from falling upon the honey, the bee folds in the free ends 
of the lining of the cell, just as a man would fold in the top of a 
