AUGUST 167 



Since writing this note I have referred to Fabre's 

 essay on leaf- cutter bees, and find that probably I 

 was wrong in supposing that Megachile supplied any 

 glutinous fluid to cause the pieces of leaf to adhere in 

 the construction of her cells. I shall allow the error to 

 stand, partly from a lazy distaste for emendation, but 

 chiefly because it affords excuse for quoting Fabre's 

 explanation of the true process. I shall be well pleased 

 if, in adopting this course, I happen to introduce any 

 reader for the first time to the fascinating Etudes 

 Entomologiques, by a master who had the rare gift of 

 recording scientific observations and research in the 

 form of exquisite literature : 



' For scissors, Megachile has her mandibles ; for compasses, 

 producing now an oval and anon a circle, she has her eye and 

 the pivot of her body. The pieces cut out are made into 

 thimble-shaped wallets, intended to contain the honey and 

 the egg ; the larger oval pieces supply the floor and sides ; 

 the smaller, round pieces are reserved for the lid. A row of 

 these thimbles, placed one on the top of the other, up to 

 a dozen or more, though often there are less such, roughly, 

 is the structure of the leaf-cutter's nest. . . . The bag of 

 leaves, as turned out by the worker, lacks stability. Its 

 numerous pieces, not glued together, but simply placed one 

 after the other, come apart and give way as soon as they 

 lose the support of the tunnel that keeps them united. Later, 

 when the larva spins its cocoon, it infuses a little of its fluid 

 silk into the gaps and solders the pieces together, especially 

 the inner ones, so that the insecure bag becomes in due 

 course a solid casket whereof it is no longer possible to 

 separate the component parts.' 1 



1 The Bramble-bees and Others, by J. H. Fabre, translated by A. T. 

 de Mattes, p. 254, 



