70 Insect Architecture. 



derably larger than the female, thus reversing the usual order 

 of things among insects. Only one species of this bee is 

 known in England.] 



A common bee belonging to the family of upholsterers 

 is called the rose-leaf cutter (Megachile cehtuncularis, LATR.). 

 The singularly ingenious habits of this bee have long 

 attracted the attention of naturalists ; but the most interest- 

 ing description is given by Reaumur. So extraordinary does 

 the construction of their nests appear, that a French gar- 

 nener having dug up some, and believing them to be the 

 work of a magician, who had placed them in his garden 

 with evil intent, sent them to Paris to his master, for advice 

 as to what should be done by way of exorcism. On applying 

 to the Abbe Nollet, the owner of the garden was soon per- 

 suaded that the nests in question were the work of insects ; 

 and M. Reaumur, to whom they were subsequently sent, 

 found them to be the nests of one of the upholsterer-bees, 

 and probably of the rose-leaf cutter, though the nests in 

 question were made of the leaves of the mountain ash 

 (Pyrus aucuparia). 



The rose-leaf cutter makes a cylindrical hole in a beaten 

 pathway, for the sake of more consolidated earth (or in the 

 cavities of walls or decayed wood), from six to ten inches 

 deep, and does not throw the earth dug out from it into a 

 heap, like the Andrense.* In this she constructs several 

 cells about an inch in length, shaped like a thimble, and 

 made of cuttings of leaves (not petals), neatly folded 

 together, the bottom of one thimble- shaped cell being 

 inserted into the mouth of* the one below it, and so on in 

 succession. 



It is interesting to observe the manner in which this 

 bee procures the materials for forming the tapestry of 

 her cells. The leaf of the rose-tree seems to be that which 

 she prefers, though she sometimes takes other sorts of leaves, 

 particularly those with serrated margins, such as the birch, 

 the perennial mercury (Mercurialis perennis), mountain-ash, 



* See p. 50. 



