250 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



others select, with the like object, empty snail-shells. 1 One remarkable 

 peculiarity of some of these insects is, that they conceal the place where 

 their cells are situated with some extraneous material. Thus O. gallarum 

 hides the galls it has adopted by glueing round them oak leaves, and a 

 species which M. Goureau conceives to be O. bicolor 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 2 : 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. Unfortunately neither 

 M. Goureau nor Mr. Thwaites could pursue their observations, not having 

 been able the following day to find any trace of the labours they had ob- 

 served on that preceding. 



The works thus far described require in general less genius than labour 

 and patience : but it is far otherwise with the nests of the last tribe of arti- 

 ficers amongst wild bees, to which I shall advert the hangers of tapestry, 

 or upholsterers those which line the holes excavated in the earth for the 

 reception of their young with an elegant coating of flowers or of leaves. 

 Amongst the most interesting of these is Megachile* Papaveris, a species 

 whose manners have been admirably described by Reaumur. This little 

 bee, as though fascinated with the colour most attractive to our eyes, in- 

 variably chooses for the hangings of her apartments the most brilliant 

 scarlet, selecting for its material the petals of the wild poppy, which she 

 dexterously 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 

 apartment, she next flies to a neighbouring field, cuts out oval portions of 

 the flowers of poppies, seizes them between her legs and returns with them 

 to her cell ; and though separated from the wrinkled petal of a half- 

 expanded flower, she knows how to straighten their folds, and, if too large, 

 to fit them for her purpose by cutting ofr the superfluous parts. Beginning 

 at the bottom, she overlays the walls of her mansion with this brilliant 

 tapestry, extending it also on the surface of the ground round the margin 

 of the orifice. The bottom is rendered warm by three or four coats, and 

 the sides have never less than two. The little upholsterer, having com- 

 pleted 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. 4 The great depth 

 of the cell compared with the space which the single egg and the accom- 

 panying food deposited in it occupy deserves particular notice. This is not 

 more than half an inch at the bottom, the remaining two inches and a half 

 being subsequently filled with earth. When you next favour me with a 

 visit, I can show you the cells of this interesting insect, as yet unknown to 

 British entomologists, for which I am indebted to the kindness of M. 

 Latreille, who first scientifically described the species. 5 



Megachile centuncularis, M. Willughbidla, and other species of the same 



1 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 274. 



8 Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, is.. 123. 5 Apis. * *. c. 2. . K. 



4 Eeaum. vi. 139 148. 6 Latr. Hist. Nat. des Fourmis, 297. 



