64 Insect Architecture. 



Several species do not take the trouble to form a burrow 

 for themselves, but content themselves with building in holes 

 ready made for them. Straws are favourite resorts of such 

 insects, and in thatched buildings the straws of the roof 

 are often filled with their cells. 



One of these insects is a very little species, barely a 

 quarter of an inch in length. Its colour is black, with some 

 silver white hair on the face, and the legs are paler than the 

 body. The abdomen has a long footstalk. Its scientific name 

 is Psen pallipes. Like the insect which has just been de- 

 scribed, it provisions its young with aphides.] 



UPHOLSTERER-BEES. 



In another part of this volume we -shall see how certain 

 caterpillars construct abodes for themselves, by cutting off' 

 portions of the leaves or bark of plants, and uniting them 

 by means of silk into a uniform and compact texture ; but 

 this scarcely appears so wonderful as the prospective labours 

 of some species of bees for the lodgment of their progeny. 

 We allude to the solitary bees, known by the name of the 

 leaf -cutting bees, but which may be denominated more 

 generally upholster -er-bees, as there are some of them which 

 use other materials beside leaves. 



One species of our little upholsterers has been called the 

 poppy-bee (Osmia papaveris, LATR.), from its selecting the 

 scarlet petals of the poppy as tapestry for its cells. Kirby 

 and Spence express their doubts whether it is indigenous to 

 this country : we are almost certain that we have seen the 

 nests in Scotland. ( J. E.) At Largs, in Ayrshire, a beautiful 

 sea-bathing village on the Firth of Clyde, in July, 1814, we 

 found in a footpath a great number of the cylindrical per- 

 forations of the poppy-bee. [In his catalogue of British 

 Hymenoptcra, Mr. F. Smith makes the following remarks 

 with regard to this insect. " The poppy-bee, Anfhocopa 

 papaveris, is closely allied to this genus (Osmia), and may 

 indeed be placed before it as a connecting link with the 

 Osmia. This interesting insect (Vabeille Tapissiere), of 



