no STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



One of the wood-boring bees is especially worthy of notice, 

 because some of its habits were remarked a century ago by 

 Gilbert White, who did not know its name, but chronicled its 

 method of obtaining padding for the nest.- We will call it the 

 Hoop-shaver [Anthidium manicatum). It is one of the summer 

 insects, seldom appearing before the beginning of July, and is a 

 rather stout-bodied insect, greyish black, with yellow lines 

 along the sides of the abdomen. The last segment of the male 

 is notable for its termination in five teeth. Its length is rather 

 under half an inch, and it is a very remarkable fact ^hat, con- 

 trary to general usage among insects, the male is larger than the 

 female. 



This bee seldom takes the trouble of making its own burrow, 

 but takes advantage of the deserted tunnel of some other insect, 

 such as the musk-beetle or the goat moth. When she has 

 selected a fitting home, she enlarges it slightly at the end, and 

 then goes in search of soft vegetable fibre wherewith to line it. 

 * There is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden campion for 

 the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some 

 purpose in the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to 

 see with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the 

 top to the bottom of a branch, and shaving it bare with the 

 dexterity of a hoop-shaver. When it has got a vast bundle, 

 almost as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between 

 its chin and its fore-legs.' 



After performing this part of her duty, she makes a number 

 of cells, using the same material, together with some glutinous 

 substance, placing an egg in each cell, and then leaves them. 

 When the larvae have obtained their full dimensions, they spin 

 separate cocoons within the cells, and in the following summer 

 the perfect insects make their appearance. 



If the reader will visit any fir- wood, and look out for the 

 dying and dead trees which are sure to be found in such places, 

 he will probably see that many of them are pierced with round 

 holes, large enough to admit an ordinary quill. These are the 

 burrows; of a splendid insect called Sirex gigas by entomologists. 



