352 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



manner. The bee collects the sawdust, if we may so term it, 

 which she gnaws out of the wood during the chiselling process, 

 into a little heap at a short distance from the excavation, and 

 having deposited her egg, and covered it with pollen and honey 

 to the height of about an inch, she proceeds to make a ceiling 

 of the dust in a most curious manner, which also serves as the 

 flooring of her next cell. She fixes to the wall of her tunnel a 

 ring of chips from her store-heap, glued together, and within 

 this she cements another smaller one, until the circular plate 

 forming the division or ceiling is completed, when it will be 

 about the thickness of a crown-piece, and very hard, showing 

 the concentric circles, as does a transverse section from the 

 trunk of a tree. She thus perfects ten or twelve cells, and 

 closes the entrance in a similar way. As the egg in the lowest 

 cell is, of course, the first laid, and will, consequently, be the ear- 

 liest hatched, it 

 stands to rea- 

 son that some 

 other mode of 

 egress will be 

 required for it 

 than the open- 

 ing at the top, 

 as this insect 

 will arrive at 

 maturity before 

 the others are 

 ready to quit 

 their cells. 

 Now, although 

 the jaws of the 

 young bee 

 would be strong 

 enough to bore 

 a way through 

 the rings of 

 sawdust, they 

 could not gnaw 

 through the 

 outer wood, and 

 therefore the 

 mother pro- 

 vides for this by 

 making a late- 

 ral passage un- 

 der the lower 

 cells, by which 

 'her elder nurse- 

 lings can make 

 their escape 

 when needful 

 from their pri- 

 son-home with- 

 out injury to 

 the rest of the 

 family. Carpen- 

 ter-wasps also 

 exist who form 

 similarly con- 

 structed and divided nests in timber ; but their work is far 

 coarser and rougher than that of the bees, and the provision 

 stored up consists of gnats and flies, instead of honey and pollen. 

 The upholsterer-bee next claims our attention, one species of 

 which is termed the poppy-bee, from the fact that she chooses 

 the bright petals of the dazzling scarlet poppy for the lining of 

 her colls. Her nest is a hole about three inches deep, increasing 

 in breadth as it descends, somewhat in the shape of a flask. 

 The little labourer having smoothed and polished the interior 

 of her chamber, next proceeds to collect the brilliant lining 

 with which she intends to embellish it. This she effects by 

 cutting off small oval pieces from the petals of the poppy, 

 taking them up between her legs, and carrying them to the 

 nest. At the lower part of it she places three or four pieces in 

 t'aickness, and never less than two round the sides. If the 

 piece should be larger than she requires, she neatly nips off the 

 excess, fitting it exactly, and taking away the cuttings. Having 

 thus arranged her tapestry, which she extends beyond the 

 entrance of her nest, she fills it with pollen and honey, lays her 



THE CARPENTEK-BEE AND ITS HABITATION. 



egg, and folds down over it the scarlet drapery from above, 

 filling in the top with earth. 



Another well-known upholsterer is the rose-leaf cutter bee, 

 A French naturalist tells us that a gardener, having met with 

 some of the wonderfully beautiful nests made by these insects, 

 believed them to be the work of a magician, who had placed 

 them in the garden with some evil intent, and sent them to his 

 master, asking what could be done to exorcise the malignant 

 spirit ! This industrious little upholsterer first bores a cylin- 

 drical hole in some beaten path, or occasionally in a wall or 

 decaying wood, and in this she forms from the cuttings o 

 leaves, neatly folded together, several thimble-shaped cells, the 

 end of each one being placed in the mouth of that immediately 

 below it. For this purpose she prefers the rose leaf, although 

 she occasionally employs that of the birch or mountain ash. In 



order to accom. 

 plish tho ne- 

 cessary feat of 

 cutting the leaf, 

 she fixes herself 

 upon its outer 

 edge, keeping 

 the margin be. 

 tween her legs, 

 and beginning 

 near the stalk, 

 she with great 

 rapidity cuts 

 out,by means of 

 her mandibles, 

 a circular piece. 

 When this be- 

 comes nearly 

 detached, and 

 she feels that 

 her weight 

 might tear it 

 away, she bal- 

 ances herself on 

 her wings until 

 she has com- 

 pleted the inci- 

 sion. She then 

 flies off to her 

 nest with the 

 cut piece, and 

 fits it into ita 

 place with mar- 

 vellous exacti- 

 tude, using no 

 glutinous mat- 

 ter, but merely 

 trusting to the 

 natural bend of 

 the leaf to keep 

 it in position. 

 It is supposed 

 that about ten 

 or twelve pieces 



are used by the bee for one cell, and one side of each piece is 

 always formed by the serrated edge of the leaf, which is invariably 

 placed outermost. She makes use of several layers of leaves, and 

 never places the joinings opposite to each other, but so arranges 

 the pieces that the centre of one comes upon the margin of the 

 other, thereby adding considerable strength to the junctions. Her 

 cells are stored with pollen and honey, principally collected from 

 the thistle, and of a beautiful rose colour. In each she deposits 

 one egg, closing in the opening with three pieces of leaf, all cut 

 with such regularity that no compasses, however skilfully 

 guided, could describe a more perfect circle ; and in this way 

 she fills her nest, exhibiting the greatest perseverance and 

 industry in restoring it to order, should any interruption or 

 derangement occur during the work. 



With such mathematical exactitude do these little creatures 

 execute the work which an Almighty Creator has ordained for 

 them to accomplish ! In our next paper we shall resume 

 the consideration of the various uses of grasses, reeds, and 

 rushes, 



