84 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Apeil 1, 1898. 



twenty seconds the bee has cut out an exactly circular 

 piece of leaf, just the size for her purpose. 



To watch these bees at work on a bright sunshiny 



FiO. 9. — Leaf-cutter Bee cutting circular piece from leaf. 



morning (and they get up and to work very early) is to 

 me one of the most fascinating sights. Two years ago I 

 spent several days in succession watching M. cetitunatlaris 

 cut dozens of pieces from a soft-leaved sweet pea growing 

 up my summer arbour, which backed against a wall eleven 

 feet high (not too countrified). My busy visitor arrived 

 on June 14th, pitched down upon a leaf, and before I could 



Fig. 10. — Leaf -cutter Bee flying away with circular piece. 



take out my pencil and note-book it had flown over the 

 wall, carrying with it a piece of the leaf. I quickly 

 obtained my field-glasses, and returned to find that during 

 my absence the bee had again visited the pea, and departed 

 with another piece of leaf. I had not long to wait for its 

 return, and now, being armed with note-book, I settled 

 down to steady work. The bee pitched upon the top edge 

 of a leaf, with its head towards the base (Fig. 9), and, 

 placing three legs on one side and three on the other, it 

 took hold of the edge with its jaws. Then the jaws began 



opening and closing rapidly, and the head was moved down 

 and round. So quickly were these operations performed 

 that in just fifteen seconds the bee had cut a circular piece 

 from out of the leaf (Fig. 10). The insect then dropped 

 down slightly, but recovered itself, and flew up towards the 

 wall. I watched it with my glasses, and saw it fly over the 

 wall to an old outhouse covered with tiles, under one of 

 which it quickly disappeared. In less than a minute it 

 reappeared, and flew straight for my boundary wall and 

 down on to the pea. Taking hold of the lower edge of the 

 leaf from which it had cut the circular piece, it commenced 



Fig. 11. — Leaf-cutter Bee, cutting ao oblong piece from leaf. 



operations this time by making a much larger arc ( Fig. 11), 

 which was finished off just before the midrib of the leaf 

 was reached. The bee then continued to cut almost 

 parallel to the midrib for a distance of over half an inch, 

 and then, turning, it completed its task in the form of a 

 segment of a circle. Once more it dropped towards the 

 ground, and, recovering as before, flew off over the wall 

 to the tiled outhouse. It laboured thus for between three 

 and four hours, during which time I noted down the 

 following particulars. Fifteen seconds were occupied in 

 cutting out a circular and twenty-seven seconds an oblong 

 piece of leaf. The journey to and from the tiles, including 

 arranging the piece of leaf, was performed in less than 

 one minute. When the leaf was almost cut through the 

 bee poised itself by gently vibrating its wings, and so 

 prevented the weight of its body from tearing the leaf. 

 Day after day the industrious bee visited my garden, until 

 there was scarcely a perfect leaf left on the clump of sweet 

 peas. From 1870 to 1874, each June, I observed numbers 

 of Megachile centuncularis visiting a clump of everlasting 

 peas, the flowers of which they are exceedingly fond of, but 

 I did not observe that they cut the leaves. They are 

 particularly fond of the leaves of the garden fuchsia. 

 (To be continued.) 



IN 



THE MOON'S NORTHERN REGIONS. 



By Arthur Mee, f.r.a.s. 



ALTHOUGH the northern regions of the moon 

 cannot compare for one moment with the glorious 

 and bewildering complexity of the southern, still 

 they contain a number of interesting objects that 

 never fail to delight the observer. Take, for in- 

 stance, the fine picture which illustrates these notes. It 



