Leaf- Cutter Bee. 151 



deposited within, and on this, in due time, is laid a single small 

 egg. Nought now remains but to wall up the cell. A 

 circle of leaf, of the size of the opening, is cut, and this is 

 closely adjusted within the wall of rolled-up leaves. Some- 

 times as many as four pieces are thus utilized. A second 

 cell, similarly built, is fitted to the first, and this is succeeded 

 by eight or ten others. When all is completed, the eggs 

 being laid and the cells all victualled, the hole of the shaft is 

 closed with the earth that was thrown out, and so carefully, 

 too, that not a trace of her doings remains to tell us the 

 story. 



Like other insects, Megachile is occasionally prone to 

 change. Some laborers while digging, one early spring-day, 

 some thirteen years ago, about a cluster of plants of Spircza 

 corymbosa, a species allied to the roses and cinquefoils, came 

 unexpectedly upon a dozen or more cells of this insect, 

 arranged horizontally in layers, some three or four inches 

 below the ground's surface. These cells were three-fourths 

 of an inch in length, one-fourth in width, and formed of the 

 leaves of Spiraea. Six circles, of three pieces each, consti- 

 tuted the cell, and these were so arranged that each succeed- 

 ing circle was made to project but slightly beyond its pre- 

 decessor. Six circular pieces, larger than seemed needful, 

 closed up the opening of each cell. That there was a pur- 

 pose here manifested war very apparent. This purpose, as 

 it appeared to the writer, was the better accommodation by 

 the hollow surface of the cell that was to follow, and the giv- 

 ing of greater firmness and security to the entire structure. 



More curious, however, were some cells that were found 

 the ensuing year, which, in looks, resembled very closely 

 those of Pelopaeus, a species of wasp, familiarly designated 

 the Mud-dauber. These cells, in numbers of three, were 

 adherent to the rafters of a hardly-used garret. In form, 

 and in the peculiar combination of their pellets of clay, they 

 were the exact counterpart of the Mud-dauber's. But the 

 curious funnel-like arrangement of leaves on the inside, so 



