Bramble-bees and Others 



When the long-horned Beetle reaches the 

 adult stages, he releases himself and emerges 

 from the tree by following a vestibule which 

 the larva's powerful tools have prepared be- 

 forehand. If the deserted cabin, owing to 

 its position, remains wholesome and there is 

 no sign of any running from its walls, no 

 brown stuff smelling of the tanyard, it is soon 

 visited by the Silky Megachile, who finds in 

 it the most sumptuous of the apartments in- 

 habited by the Leaf-cutters. It combines 

 every condition of comfort: perfect safety, 

 an even temperature, freedom from damp, 

 ample room ; and so the mother who is fortu- 

 nate enough to become the possessor of such 

 a lodging uses it entirely, vestibule and draw- 

 ing-room alike. Accommodation is found for 

 all her family of eggs; at least, I have no- 

 where seen nests as populous as here. 



One of them provides me with seventeen 

 cells, the highest number appearing in my 

 census of the Megachile genus. Most of 

 them are lodged in the nymphal chamber of 

 the Capricorn; and, as the spacious recess is 

 too wide for a single row, the cells are ar- 

 ranged in three parallel series. The re- 

 mainder, in a single string, occupy the vestl- 



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