LEAF-CUTTING BEE. 105 



VI. Notes on the Leaf-cutting Bee. By F. W. PUTNAM. 



(Communicated Oct. 22, 1863.) 



/ 



While at B rid port, Vt., I was enabled to make a few 

 observations on the habits of the Leal-cutting Bee 

 (Megachile). My attention was first, called, on the 26th of 

 June, to a female busily engaged in bringing pieces of 

 leaf to her cells, which she was building under a board, on 

 the roof of the piazza, directly under my window. Nearly 

 the whole morning was occupied by the bee in bringing 

 pieces of leaf from a rose bush growing about ten yards 

 from her cells, returning, at intervals of a half minute to a 

 minute, with the pieces which she carried in such a man- 

 ner as not to impede her walking when she alighted near 

 her hole. About noon she had probably completed the 

 cell upon which she" had been engaged, as during the 

 afternoon, she was occupied in bringing pollen, preparatory 

 to laying her single egg in the cell. For about twenty 

 days the bee continued at work, building new cells and 

 supplying them with pollen. At the end of this time she 

 had probably completed her allotted task, as she was not 

 seen again. 



On the 2^th of July, upon removing the board, it was 

 found that the bee had made thirty cells, arranged in nine 

 rows of unequal length, some being slightly curved to 

 adapt them to the space under the board. The longest row 

 contained six cells, and was two and three quarters inches 

 in length. The cells averaged about one half an inch in 

 length ; the whole leaf structure being equal to a length of 

 fifteen inches. Upon making an estimate of the pieces of 

 leaf in this structure, it was ascertained that there must 

 have been at least a thousand pieces used. In addition 

 to the labor of making the cells, this bee, unassisted in all 

 her duties, had j;o collect the requisite amount of pollen 

 (and honey ?) for each cell and lay her egg therein, when 

 completed. Upon carefully cutting out a portion of one 

 of the cells, a full grown larva was seen engaged in spin- 

 ning a slight silken cocoon about the walls of its prison, 

 which were quite hard and smooth on the inside, probably 

 owing to the movements of the larva and the consequent 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. IV. N. 



