Leaf-Cutter Bee. 151 
deposited within, and on this, in due time, is laid a single small 
egg. Nought now remains but to wall up the cell. A 
circle of leaf, of the size of the opening, is cut, and this is 
closely adjusted within the wall of rolled-up leaves. Some- 
times as many as four pieces are thus utilized. A second 
cell, similarly built, is fitted to the first, and this is succeeded 
by eight or ten others. When all is completed, the eggs 
being laid and the cells all victualled, the hole of the shaft is 
closed with the earth that was thrown out, and so carefully, 
too, that not a trace of her doings remains to tell us the 
story. 
Like other insects, Megachile is occasionally prone to 
change. Some laborers while digging, one early spring-day, 
some thirteen years ago, about a cluster of plants of Spir@a 
corymbosa, a species allied to the roses and cinquefoils, came 
unexpectedly upon a dozen or more cells of this insect, 
arranged horizontally in layers, some three or four inches 
below the ground’s surface. These cells were three-fourths 
of an inch in length, one-fourth in width, and formed of the 
leaves of Spirza. Six circles, of three pieces each, consti- 
tuted the cell, and these were so arranged that each succeed- 
ing circle was made to project but slightly beyond its pre- 
decessor. Six circular pieces, larger than seemed needful, 
closed up the opening of each cell. That there was a pur- 
pose here manifested was very apparent. This purpose, as 
it appeared to the writer, was the better accommodation by 
the hollow surface of the cell that was to follow, and the giv- 
ing of greater firmness and security to the entire structure. 
More curious, however, were some cells that were found 
the ensuing year, which, in looks, resembled very closely 
those of Pelopzus, a species of wasp, familiarly designated 
the Mud-dauber. These cells, in numbers of three, were 
adherent to the rafters of a hardly-used garret. In form, 
and in the peculiar combination of their pellets of clay, they 
were the exact counterpart of the Mud-dauber’s. But the 
curious funnel-like arrangement of leaves on the inside, so 
