32 Genera of Apida. 
tate jaws they cut long tunnels, often two or more feet 
long, in sound wood. These burrows are pailitioned by 
chips, into cells, and in each cell is left an egg and bce- 
bread for the larva, soon to hatch. These bees often do 
no slight damage by boring into cornices, window casings, 
etc., of houses and outbuildings. At my suggestion many 
people thus annoyed, have plugged these tunnels with a 
mixture of lard and kerosene, and have speedily driven the 
offending bees away. These are the bees which I have 
discovered piercing the base of long tubular flowers, like 
the wild bergamot. I have seen honey-bees visiting 
these slitted flowers, the nectar of which was thus made 
accessible to them. I have never seen honey-bees biting 
flowers, I think they never do it. 
The mason-bees—well named—construct cells of earth, 
which by aid of their spittle they cement so that these cells 
are very hard, There are several genera of these bees, the 
elegant Osmia, the brilliant Augochlora, the more sober but 
very numerous Andrena—the little black bees that often 
steal into the hives for honey—etc. Some burrow in sand, © 
soine build in hollowed out weeds, some build mud cells in 
crevices; even small key-holes not being exempt, as I have 
too good reason to know. The Yale locks in our museum 
have thus suffered. Here the lard and kerosene mixture 
again comes in play. 
The tailor, or leaf-cutting bees, of the genus Megachile, 
make wonderful cells from variously shaped pieces of leaves. 
These are always mathematical in form, usually circular 
and oblong, are cut—the insect making scissors of its jaws 
—from various leaves, the rose being a favorite. I have 
found these cells made almost wholly of the petals or 
flower leaves of the rose. The cells are made by gluing 
these leaf-sections in concentric layers, letting them over- 
lap. The oblong sections form the walls of the cylinder, 
while the circular pieces are crowded into the tubes as we 
press circular wads into our shot-guns, and are used at the 
ends, or for partitions where several cells are placed together. 
When complete, the single cells are in form and size much 
like a revolver cartridge. When several are placed together, 
which is usually the case, they are arranged end to end, and 
