98 



THE AMEBIC AN BEE JOURNAL. 



order, some being parallel to the wall, others 

 perpendicular to it, and others inclined to it at 

 dilFerent angles, this laborious architect fills up 

 with the same material of which the cells arc 

 composed, and then bestows upon the whole 

 group a common covering of coarser grains of 

 sand. The form of the whole nest, which when 

 finished is a solid mass of stone so hard as not 

 to be easily penetrated with the blade of a knife, 

 is an irregular oblong of the same color as the 

 sand, and to a casual observer more resembling 

 a splash of mud than an artificial structure. 

 These bees sometimes are more economical of 

 their labor, and repair old nests, for the posses- 

 sion of which they have very desperate com- 

 bats. One would have supposed that the in- 

 habitants of a castle so fortified might defy the 

 attacks of every insect marauder. ■ Yet an 

 Ichneumon and a beetle ( Clems ajnarius) both 

 contrive to introduce their eggs into the cells, 

 and the larvae proceeding from them devour 

 their inhabitants. 



Other bees of the same group with that last 

 described use different materials in the con- 

 struction of their nests. Some employ fine 

 earth made into a kind of mortar with gluten. 

 Another, (Osmia ccarulescens^) as we learn from 

 De Geer, forms its nest of argillaceous earth 

 mixed with chalk, upon stone walls, and some- 

 times probably nidificates in chalk-pits. 0. 

 licorms, according to Reaumur, selects the hol- 

 lows of large stones for the site of its dwelling; 

 but in England seems to prefer rotten posts and 

 l)alings, in which it bores upwards, and then 

 forms the partitions of its cells of clay and sand 

 glued together. One species of this genus ( 0. 

 (jallarum) saves itself trouble by placing its 

 cells in an abandoned gall of the oak, and others 

 select, with the like object, empty snail-shells. 

 One remarkable peculiarity of some of these 

 insects is that they conceal the place where their 

 cells are situated with some extraneous material. 

 Thus 0. gullarum hides the galls it has adopted 

 by glueing- round them oak leaves, and a species 

 wliicli M. Goureau conceives to be 0. Mcolor 

 employed a whole day in arranging over the 

 mouth (as he supposes) of its cell pieces of 

 grass about two inches long, in a conical or 

 tent-like form ; and that this species employs 

 this material for some purpose connected with 

 its nest is confirmed by Mr. Thwaites, who 

 observed a female for a considerable time 

 fetching similar pieces of grass, and laying them 

 over a snail-shell, where he had every reason 

 to believe she had formed her cells. Unfor- 

 tunately neither M. Goureau nor Mr. Thwaites 

 could pursue their observations, not having 

 been able the following day to find any trace of 

 the labors they had observed on that pre- 

 ceding. 



The works thus far described require in 

 general less genius than labor and patience, but 

 it is far otherAvise with the nests of the last 

 tribe of artificers amongst wild bees, to which 

 I shall advert — the hangers of tapestry or 

 tifliolsterers — those which line the holes exca- 

 vated in the earth for the reception of their 

 young Avith an elegant coaling of fioAvers or of 

 leaves. Amongst the most interesting of these 

 is MegacMle Papuveris, a species Avhose manners 



have been admirably described by Reaumur. 

 This little bee, as though fascinated with the 

 color most attractive to our eyes, invariably 

 chooses for the hangings of her apartments the 

 most brilliant scarlet, selecting for its material 

 the petals of the Wild poppy, which she dex- 

 terously cuts into the proper form. Her first 

 process is to excavate in some pathway a burrow, 

 cylindrical at the entrance, but swelled out 

 below to the depth of about' three inches. 

 Having polished the walls of this little apart- 

 ment, she next flies to a neighboring field, cuts 

 out oval portions of the flowers of poppies, 

 seizes them between her legs, and returns with 

 them to h^r cell; and though separated from the 

 wrinkled petal of a half-expanded flower, she 

 knows hoAV to straighten their folds, and, if toe 

 large, to fit them to her purpose by cutting off 

 the superfluous parts. Beginning at the bottom, 

 she overlays the walls of her mansion with this 

 brilliant tapestry, extending it also on the sur- 

 face of the ground round the margin of the ori- 

 fice. The bottom is rendered warm by three 

 or four coats, and the sides have never less than 

 two. The little upholsterer, having completed 

 the hangings of her apartment, next fills it with 

 pollen and honey to the height of about half an 

 inch ; then, after committing an egg to it, she 

 wraps over the poppy lining so that even the 

 roof may be of this material, and lastly closes 

 its mouth with a small hillock of earth. The 

 great depth of the cell compared with the space 

 which the single egg and the accompanying food 

 deposited in it occupy deserves particular notice. 

 This is not more than half an inch at the bottom, 

 the remaining tAVO inches and a half being sub- 

 sequently filled Avith earth. When you next 

 favor me Avith a visit, I can show you the cells 

 of this interesting insect as yet unkuoAvn to 

 British entomologists, for which I am indebted 

 to the kindness of M. Latreille, who first scien- 

 tifically described the species. 



MegacMle centuncularis^ M. Willughhiella^ and 

 other species of the same family, like the pre- 

 ceding, cover the Avails of their cells Avith a 

 coating of leaves, but are content with a more 

 sober color, generally selecting for their hang- 

 ings the leaves of trees, especially of the rose, 

 Avhence they have been known by the name of 

 the leaf-cutter bees. They differ also from M. 

 Papaveris in excavating longer burrows, and 

 filling them Avith several thimble-shaped cells 

 composed of portions of leaves so curiously 

 convoluted, that, if we were ignorant in what 

 school they have been taught to construct them, 

 Ave should never credit their being the Avork of 

 an insect. Their entertaining history, so long 

 ago as 1G70, attracted the attention of our 

 countrymen Ray, Lister, Willughby, and Sir 

 EdAvard King ; but we are indebted for the 

 most complete account of their procedures to 

 Reaumur. 



The mother-bee first excavates a cylindrical 

 hole eight or ten inches long, in a horizontal 

 direction, either in the ground or in the trunk 

 of a rotten AvilloAV-tree, or occasionally in other 

 decaying wood. This cavity she fills Avith six 

 or seven cells Avholly composed of portions of 

 leaf, of the shape of a thimble, the coua'cx end 

 of one closely fitting into the open end of 



