LEAF-CUTTING BEES 



THESE are amongst the specially interesting of the 

 bees in their habits. They are dull-brown coloured 

 creatures rather like a stout hive bee in form 

 (pi. C, 20). They all collect pollen on the under- 

 side of their body. They burrow either in decayed 

 wood or in the ground, but they make their cells 

 of pieces of leaves which they cut off from rose 

 bushes or other plants ; these cells when completed 

 are wonderful works of art. Probably some of 

 my readers may have noticed rose leaves with 

 semicircular pieces cut out of them, and often 

 with almost circular ones ; this is the work of the 



FIG. 7. 



leaf cutter (fig. 7). She alights on a leaf, holds on to 

 the edge of the piece she^wants to cut off with her 



52 



