INSECTS 391 



These are divided into a series of cells by partitions consisting 

 of saw-dust stuck together with saliva, and each cell contains an 

 egg, together with a supply of honey and pollen. The larva, 

 as in bees generally, is a limbless grub, and after using up the 

 food-supply allotted to it, becomes a pupa. The adult insect, 

 after coming out of the pupa, bites through the saw-dust partitions 

 which confine it, and makes its way to the exterior. 



The Leaf-cutting Bees (species of Megachile) are widely 

 distributed forms, which either excavate holes for their nests, 

 or else use existing hollows for the purpose. These are then 

 lined with pieces of leaf, bitten out for the purpose, and stuck 

 together by a special secretion. Each cell is covered by a circular 

 lid, composed of a number of pieces skilfully cemented together. 

 Several cells are placed end to end, each containing an ^gg 

 with a supply of food, much as in the Carpenter Bee. The 

 Poppy Bee (Osmia or Anthocopa papaveris), a rare native form, 

 lines its cells with the scarlet petals of the common poppy. 

 Regarding the habits of this species, Shuckard (in British Bees) 

 makes the following remarks: — "The habits of these bees . . . 

 are to excavate vertical cylinders in hard down-trodden pathways 

 and roads, by the sides of fields where corn is grown, and where 

 consequently the common red poppy is abundant. From the 

 petals of the flowers of this plant they cut out semicircular pieces, 

 precisely as is done by Megachile with the more rigid leaves 

 of shrubs and trees, and convey them home and line their nests 

 with them, just as is practised by that genus with those leaves — 

 with this difference merely, that a sufficient portion of the upper 

 edge of the pieces of the petals used is left projecting, for the 

 purpose of forming a covercle to the nidus, and which, when filled 

 with provender and the egg deposited, is refolded over it and 

 covered in, and it is closed up with earth. They then proceed 

 to make another excavation, which is treated in the same manner, 

 for they deposit only one larva in a tube. I would urge our 

 collecting entomologists, especially those who have the opportunity 

 of hunting up the west of England, to use due diligence and strive 

 to confirm the native existence of this bee, and add specimens 

 to the cabinets of their fellow-entomologists." 



We now come to a number of Solitary Wasps and Wasp-like 

 Insects which provide for their young by placing in the nest a 

 store of caterpillars or other creatures, which they have previously 



