NESTS m A FLUTE. 511 



of the Osmia, which will even enter into houses in search of a 

 suitable locality. Some years ago I was at a sale at Lee, and 

 purchased for a very small sum a band-box full of miscellaneous 

 articles. Among them was a flute, which was quite choked up, 

 apparently as if some mischievous child had been stuffing it with 

 paper. On unscrewing the flute, I found it to be occupied with 

 the cells of the Osmia, the insect having evidently entered by 

 the mouth-hole and gradually filled the instrument with its 

 cells. The mother-bee must have found its way into the dis- 

 used rooms in which the band-box had been lying, and so con- 

 trived to discover the flute. The flute is now in the British 

 Museum. 



Empty snail-shells are favourite localities with the Osmias, 

 and in the British Museum is a very curious specimen. The 

 shell happened to be a very large one, so that several cells could 

 be made in it. The bee began as usual by making a single cell 

 far within the shell. She then placed two more cells hori- 

 zontally side by side, and then, the shell being very much wider, 

 built two more cells, also side by side, but transversely ; thus 

 showing that she possessed no small reasoning powers. 



The present species is an inhabitant of Southern Europe, and 

 has been found in England, though it is very local. Kent seems 

 to be its favourite county. It is a very pretty insect, the colour 

 being black, banded with orange. Generally, it does not reach 

 half an inch in length, but a few specimens have been taken 

 which were three-quarters of an inch in length. 



One species of Osmia does not build in tubes, but makes its 

 simple nest under the shelter of flat stones and in similar 

 localities. This is a northern species, and its name is Osmia parie- 

 tana. Instead of boring tunnels, or making cocoons in tubes, it 

 merely selects the under surface of some flat stone, and to it 

 attaches a number of balls of pollen, each ball accompanied by 

 an egg. After the larva is full-fed, it spins a cocoon, which it 

 affixes to the stone in the same place which the pollen-ball pre- 

 viously occupied. The number of these cocoons is something 

 great. On a piece of stone only ten inches by six, no less than 

 two hundred and thirty cocoons were found. These were placed 

 in the hands of Mr. F. Smith, who found that the insects were 

 developed in three distinct batches, one in 1849, another in 

 1850, and the third in 1851. 



