132 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



and extending far in towards the midrib, pieces 

 have been cleanly cut out. Where one plant has 

 suffered almost alone in this respect, it will almost 

 certainly be one of the varieties known as tea-roses, 

 the firm, glossy leaf apparently being more suitable 

 for the purpose than any other. 



All the Leaf-cutter Bees, however, do not select 

 rose-leaves for their purpose ; the species that do 

 so mostly are Willughby's Leaf-cutter (Megachile 

 willughbiella) and the Patchwork Leaf-cutter {M. 

 centuncularis). The first named usually makes its 

 nests by boring deep wells in the soft wood of an 

 old willow, and sometimes instead of rose-leaves 

 selects those of the laburnum for its depredations. 

 The manner in which most of the species work has 

 been well described by Shuckard. He says : 



" The cylindrical tube being prepared, which is 

 done very similarly to the way in which it is prac- 

 tised by all the labouring genera, by the gradual 

 removal of the particles of the wood, or sand, or 

 earth of which it consists, the insect's instinct 

 prompts it to fly forth to obtain the necessary 

 lining, that the lateral earth may not fall in, or the 

 wood taint the store to be accumulated for the 

 young, for it is before this is done that the upholstery 

 is commenced. Having fixed upon the preferred 

 plant, rose-bush or laburnum or sallow, or 

 whatever it may be, it alights upon the leaf, and 

 fixing itself upon the edge, it holds it with three 

 legs on each side ; then using its mandibles as the 

 cutter of silhouettes would his scissors, and, just 



