The Leaf-cutters 



I gladly award her the most honourable 

 of eulogies, that due to the industrious; and 

 I also compliment her on her talent for clos- 

 ing the honey-pots. The pieces stacked into 

 lids are round and have nothing to suggest 

 those of which the cells and the final barri- 

 cade are made. Excepting the first, those 

 nearest the honey, they are perhaps cut a tri- 

 fle less neatly than the disks of the White- 

 girdled Leaf-cutter; no matter: they stop the 

 jar perfectly, especially when there are some 

 ten of them one above the other. When cut- 

 ting them, the Bee was as sure of her scissors 

 as a dressmaker guided by a pattern laid on 

 the stuff; and yet she was cutting without a 

 model, without having in front of her the 

 mouth to be closed. To enlarge on this in- 

 teresting subject would mean to repeat one's 

 self. All the Leaf-cutters have the same 

 talent for making the lids of their pots. 



A less mysterious question than this geo- 

 metrical problem is that of the materials. 

 Does each species of Megachile keep to a sin- 

 gle plant or has it a definite botanical domain 

 wherein to exercise its liberty of choice? The 

 little that I have already said is enough to 

 make us suspect that the insect is not re- 



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