1 84 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



but where the soil is of a clayey nature she 

 chooses decaying trees, particularly willows, in 

 which to build her nest. Two other British 

 Osmiae make their nests in the empty shells of the 

 common snail, building their little cells, of well- 

 masticated vegetable fibres, within the whorls. 



The Megachile, or Leaf-cutting Bee, is a small 

 black insect, with a patch of white down on its 

 head, and a few reddish hairs on the thorax, the 

 first three segments of the abdomen are also 

 ornamented with white down. The Leaf-cutter 

 makes a tunnel in earth that is fairly firm and solid, 

 first working downwards for a few inches, and 

 then continuing in a horizontal direction until a 

 gallery of considerable length is formed. She 

 then flies off to the nearest garden, and selecting 

 a leaf on a rose bush, she cuts out a large piece 

 with her long, four-toothed mandibles, as neatly 

 as if it had been snipped off with a sharp pair of 

 scissors. Ten or twelve pieces of varying shapes 

 are cut from the rose-leaves, and carried by the 

 bee to her burrow ; where she twists and folds 

 them, and fits one within the other, to form a 

 compact, little green chamber about the third of 

 an inch long, and rather like a thimble in shape. 

 When the cake of honey and pollen is placed 

 inside the tiny rose-leaf cell, and an egg laid, the 

 Megachile closes it with a circular piece of leaf 

 that exactly fits the opening. Three, and some- 

 times four of these circular pieces are carefully 

 fitted one over the other, and pressed firmly 

 down before the bee considers it quite safe and 

 secure. Eight or ten little cells are usually con- 

 structed, one fitting into the other, so that they 



