HYMENOPTERA. 367 



These nests (Figs. 340 and 341) are filled with cells of oblong form 

 arranged :. irregularly. At first sight they might be taken for little 

 lumps of earth plastered against the wall. When the perfect insect 

 emerges, it is obliged to soften the mortar with its saliva, and to remove 

 it, grain by grain, with its mandibles. The nests of Chalicodomas are 

 common in the environs of Paris, on walls of rough stones exposed to 

 the south. They are often to be found in the parks of Meudon, of 

 Conflans, of Vesinet, &c. 



The Leaf-cutting Bees (Megachile} are not less worthy of remark in 

 their habits. These insects make their nests in tubes lined with the 

 leaves of the rose, the willow, the lilac, &c., placed in a cylindrical 

 burrow. Each nest contains generally from three to six cells, sepa- 

 rated by partitions of leaves. They cut off the pieces of leaves they 

 require with their mandibles, the notches 

 being wonderfully cleanly cut, as if they had 

 been done with a punch. 



They make as many as eight or ten 

 envelopes in succession with the leaves, 

 which, as they get dry, contract, keeping, 

 however, the form given to them by the 

 insect. The cells destined to receive the 

 eggs acquire thus a certain solidity. Fig. 342 

 represents the nest of the Megachile. 



The Upholsterer Bees (Anthocopas) line 



their nests with the petals of flowers, as, for example {Papaver rhaas), 

 the corn-poppy. Their burrows are made perpendicularly in the 

 beaten earth of roads, and each contains one solitary cell, lined with 

 portions of petals. When the egg has been laid at the bottom of 

 this cell, the bee fills up the rest of the hole with earth, to hide it 

 ;from notice. 



The Mining Bees (Andrena) hollow out in the ground tubular gal- 

 leries (Fig. 343). They are not larger than ordinary flies. A great 

 .number of other bees are known, but their habits are little under- 

 stood, and we shall not occupy ourselves about them. 



WASPS. 



Every one knows the wasps as a race of dangerous brigands which 

 live by rapine, are incessantly fighting Sattles, and which exist only to 



key. The locks were in pretty constant use, so that the nests must have been built 

 in the course of a few days. Journal of Proceedings of the Entomological Society of 

 London, 1867, IxxvL ED. 



