UPHOLSTERER-BEES. 59 



bably the grub spins the vermicular cells previous to 

 its metamorphosis. 



It might prove interesting to investigate this more 

 minutely; and, as the bee is by no means scarce 

 in the neighbourhood of London, it might not be 

 difficult for a careful observer to witness all the details 

 of this singular architecture. The bee may be readily 

 known from its congeners, by its being about the size 

 of the hive-bee, but more broad and flattened, blackish 

 brown above, with a row of sLx yellow or white 

 spots along each side of the rings, very hke the rose- 

 leaf cutter, and having the belly covered with yellow- 

 ish brown hair, and the legs fringed with long hairs 

 of a rather lighter colour. 



A common bee belonging to the family of uphol- 

 sterers is called the rose-leaf cutter {Megachile cen- 

 tuncularis, Latr.) The singularly ingenious habits of 

 this bee have long attracted the attention of naturalists, 

 but the most interesting description is given by 

 Reaumur. So extraordinary does the construction 

 of their nests appear, that a French gardener having 

 dug up some, and believing them to be the work of 

 a magician, who had placed them in his garden with 

 evil intent, sent them to Paris to his master, for ad- 

 vice as to what should be done by way of exorcism. 

 On applying to the Abbe NoUet, the owner of the 

 garden was soon persuaded that the nests in ques- 

 tion were the work of insects; and M. Reaumur, to 

 whom they were subsequently sent, found them to 

 be the nests of one of the upholsterer-bees, and pro- 

 bably of the rose-leaf cutter, though the nests in ques- 

 tion were made of the leaves of the mountain-ash 

 ( Pyrus aucuparia . ) 



The rose-leaf cutter makes a cylindrical hole in a 

 beaten pathway, for the sake of more consolidated 

 earth, (or in the cavities of walls or decayed wood,) 



