UPHOLSTERER-BEES. 55 



to adapt it to the tapestry with which it is in- 

 tended to be hung, and which is the next step in the 

 process. 



The material used for tapestry by the msect uphol- 

 sterer is supplied by the petals* of the scarlet field- 

 poppy, from which she successively 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 cut- 

 ting the fresh petal of a poppy with a pair of scissors, 

 we may perceive the difficulty of keeping the piece 

 free from wrinkles and shrivelling; 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 cham- 

 ber all round with this splendid scarlet tapestry, of 

 which she is not sparing, but extends it even be- 

 yond the entrance, she then fills it with the pollen 

 of flowers mixed with honey, to the height of about 

 half an inch. In this magazine of provisions for her 

 future progeny she lays an egg, and over it folds 

 down the tapestry of poppy petals from above. The 

 upper part is then filled m with earth; but Latreille 

 says, he has observed more than one cell constructed 

 in a single excavation. This may account for Reau- 

 mur's describing them as sometimes seven inches 

 deep; a circumstance which Latreille, however, thinks 

 very surprising. 



It will, perhaps, be impossible ever to ascertain, 

 beyond a doubt, whether the tapestry-bee is led to 



* Petal is the term employed by botanists to denote the leaf, 

 or division of the coloured portion of a flower. 



