CLASS I. INSECTA: ORDER 3. HYMENOPTERA. 



561 



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INTERIOR OF THE HCMBLE-BEe's NEST. 



called Solitary Bees we can mention only a few species. The Upholsterer Bees, of -wliicli there 

 are several kinds, line their nests with pieces of leaf, which they cut as neatly as if done with a 

 pair of scissors. One species is called Osmia papaver's from her selecting the scarlet petals of 

 the poppy as tapestry for her cells. From these she cuts off small pieces of an oval shape, seizes 

 them between her legs, and conveys them to the nest. She begins her work at the bottom, 

 which she overlays with three or four leaves in thickness, and the sides have never less than 

 two. When she finds that the piece she has brought is too large to fit the place intended, she 

 cuts off" what is superfluous, and carries away the shreds. By cutting the fresh petal of a poppy 

 with a pair of scissors, we may perceive the difl^culty of keeping the piece free from wrinkles 

 and shriveling, but the bee knows how to spread the pieces which she uses as smooth as glass. 

 When she has in this manner hung the little chamber all around with this splendid scarlet 

 tapestry, of which she is not sparing, but extends it even beyond the entrance, she then fills it 

 with the pollen of flowers mixed with honey to the height of about half an inch. In this maga- 

 zine of provisions for her future progeny she lays her eggs, where in due time they arc hatched. 



The Carder-Bees, Bomhi muscorum, are found in open fields and meadows, usually in hay- 

 ing-time. They select for their nest a shallow excavation in the ground, about a foot in diame- 

 ter, or if such a one is not to be found, they make one with prodigious labor. This they cover 

 over with a dome of moss, or sometimes with withered grass. They collect their materials by 

 pushing them along upon the ground, working backward like the tumble-bugs. Frequently in 

 the spring, a single female founds the colony, and by perseverance collects the mossy covering in 

 the way described ; later in the season, when the hive is populous and can afford more hands, 

 there is an ingenious division of this labor. A file of bees, to the number sometimes of half a 

 dozen, is established from the nest to the moss or grass which they intend to use, the heads of 

 all the file of bees being turned from the nest and toward the material. The last bee of the file 

 lays hold of some of the moss with her mandibles, disentangles it from the rest, and having 

 carded it with her fore-legs into a sort of felt or small bundle, she pushes it under her body to 



Vol. II.— 71 



