POISON-FANG AND STILETTO 185 



look rather like a long sleeve, or a lot of little 

 thimbles fitting closely one against another. 



Three hundred species of Megachilidae are 

 known to exist, and they are to be found in nearly 

 all parts of the world. They all make their 

 burrows in the earth or in wood, and line them 

 with cuttings from leaves or petals of flowers. 

 The Poppy Bee (Anthocopa papaveris), called by 

 Reaumior the "Upholsterer Bee," chooses the 

 common scarlet poppy with which to line her 

 nest. She makes her burrows in dry, sandy 

 soils, and pounds and presses the sides to make 

 them hard and lasting. She then lines the cell 

 completely with pieces of delicate, bright red 

 fabric, cut from the petals of the poppy ; pressing 

 and smoothing each piece with her head and feet, 

 so that there are no folds or creases, and finally 

 folding in the loose ends of the lining so that no 

 grain of sand can fall into the cell. 



One of the largest of the mining Hymenoptera 

 is the Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violaced). It is an 

 exceedingly handsome insect with a velvety 

 black body and beautiful violet-coloured wings. 

 The Xylocopa inhabits the south of Europe, and 

 is found in some parts of Germany. The female 

 constructs her nest in dead trees or old wooden 

 posts ; with her powerful mandibles she gnaws 

 straight into the wood for a short distance, and 

 then works downwards until she has bored a 

 tunnel that is often as much as a foot in length 

 and half an inch in diameter. In this the 

 Carpenter Bee forms about a dozen cells, 

 dividing one from another with a paste made 

 from the fine sawdust moistened with her saliva. 



