72 Insect Architecture. 



poises herself on her wings, till she has completed the 

 incision. It has been said, by naturalists, that this man- 

 oeuvre of poising herself on the wing, is to prevent her 

 falling to the ground, when the piece gives way ; but as no 

 winged insect requires to take any such precaution, our 

 explanation is probably the true one. 



With the piece which she has thus cut out, held in a bent 

 position perpendicularly to her body, she flies off to her 

 nest, and fits it into the interior with the utmost neatness 

 and ingenuity ; and, without employing any paste or glue, 

 she trusts, as Beaumur ascertained, to the spring the leaf 

 takes in drying, to retain it in its position. It requires 

 from nine to ten pieces of leaf to form one cell, as they are 

 not always of precisely the same thickness. The interior 

 surface of each cell consists of three pieces of leaf, of equal 

 size, narrow at one end, but gradually widening at the other, 

 where the width equals half the length. One side of each 

 of the pieces is the serrated margin of the leaf from which 

 it was cut, and this margin is always placed outermost, and 

 the cut margin innermost. Like most insects, she begins 

 with the exterior, commencing with a layer of tapestry, 

 which is composed of three or four oval pieces, larger in 

 dimensions than the rest, adding a second and a third layer 

 proportionately smaller. In forming these, she is careful 

 not to place a joining opposite to a joining, but with all the 

 skill of a consummate artificer, lays the middle of each piece 

 of leaf over the margins of the others, so as by this means 

 both to cover and strengthen the junctions. By repeating 

 this process, she sometimes forms a fourth or a fifth layer of 

 leaves, taking care to bend the leaves at the narrow extremity 

 or closed end of the cell, so as to bring them into a convex 



When she has in this manner completed a cell, her next 

 business is to replenish it with a store of honey and pollen, 

 which, being chiefly collected from thistles, forms a beautiful 

 rose-coloured conserve. In this she deposits a single egg, 

 and then covers in the opening with three pieces of leaf, so 

 exactly circular, that a pair of compasses could not define 



