ISO LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 



perfectly smooth. Then flying to the poppy, 

 she cuts out a piece of leaf with her mandibles, 

 and carrying it to her nest, spreads it smoothly 

 over the bottom. If it happen to be rather 

 large, or do not fit exactly, she clips off the 

 edges, and throws away the parings. After 

 covering the bottom with three layers of these 

 leaves, she cuts out other pieces, with which 

 she lines the sides, extending them beyond the 

 entrance. She then fills the bottom of it with 

 moistened pollen to the depth of about half an 

 inch. In this she lays one egg, and carefully 

 folding over it the poppy leaves from above, she 

 fills the top of the nest with earth, which effec- 

 tually conceals it from observation. 



Another of these little Upholsterers, sometimes 

 called the rose-leaf cutter, displays still more in- 

 genuity in the construction of her nest. She 

 makes a hole from six to ten inches in depth, and 

 cutting out pieces of leaf exactly suited to her 

 purpose, forms them into cells about the size 

 and shape of a thimble, which she places one 

 within the other, as you have sometimes seen a 

 row of thimbles in the show-case of a jeweller's 

 shop. 



