NESTS OF THE MEGACHILE. 



513 



Even the same species is very variable in the position of its 

 nest. Mr. F. Smith remarks that our best known species, Mega- 

 chile ccntuncularis, sometimes burrows in decaying wood, some- 

 times in the soft mortar of an old wall, and sometimes in the 

 ground. Within these burrows it makes its cells, which are 

 formed from the cut leaves, and look very much like a number 

 of green thimbles stuck into each other. There is now before 

 me a specimen which was not made in a tunnel at all, the bee 

 having made its way into an outhouse, and placed its nest on a 

 high shelf. It has generally been supposed that the cells were 

 made by bending the leaves and allowing them to press by their 

 own elasticity against the side of the burrow. But the existence 

 of this nest shows that the bee can make its cells independently 



Fig. 276. — Megachile inonstrosus. 

 (Deep purple and white.) 



of the burrow, and that it can bend and fasten together the leaves 

 by its own unaided efforts. 



In Mr. Home's paper on the Indian hymenoptera, there is a 

 very interesting account of the manner in which various species 

 of this genus build their nests. One species, Megachile fasci- 

 culata, consrtucted its leaf-cells in the hollow handle of a large 

 garden vase, a number of the nests being built closely together. 

 Another species, Megachile disjuncta, uses mud instead of leaves, 

 and makes two earthen tubes, side by side, sometimes giving 

 each of them a curious twist in the middle. Megachile lanata 

 is also a mud-builder, and works in a variety of ways. The 

 following is Mr. Home's account of this insect : — 



" This insect is found in almost every house in the North- 



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