Wonders of Insect Architecture. 



away to the rose bushes, and begins to examine their 

 foliage critically, finally selecting a nice, perfect leaf, 

 upon which she settles and proceeds to cut out a large 

 oblong piece with her mandibles. So perfectly is this 

 done that one might easily imagine it had been done by 

 a pair of scissors. Cutting rapidly, the bee 

 soon detaches the piece of leaf, which, how- 

 ever, is not allowed to fall to the ground, but 

 is held between the legs and jaws, whilst the 

 wings vibrate strongly, and is at once carried 

 off to the nest. Ten or twelve pieces of differ- 

 ent shape will be cut off in this manner and 

 transported to the nest, where the bee sets to 

 work and folds them, one within the other, in 

 the most expert fashion, so as to form them 

 into a sort of thimble-shaped cone. She then 

 visits the flower garden in search of honey and 

 pollen, returning again and again, until she has 

 gathered in sufficient to work up into a mass 

 of honey paste, which she places at the bot- 

 tom of the cell, and upon this she deposits 

 a single egg. She now once more visits the 

 rose bushes, and cuts from the leaves a series 

 of very nearly perfect circles, which she uses to Nest 

 seal up the top of the cell. A second cell is con- 

 structed in the same manner, its base fitting 

 against the top of the first, and thus a series of eight or 

 ten cells is formed, stocked with honey paste, and an 

 egg deposited in each. Then when the cell is completed, 

 the little bee comes out and closes the perpendicular shaft 

 with some of the earth she dug out in excavating it, work- 

 ing so carefully that no trace of the entrance can be seen. 



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oi 

 Bee 



