PEOM THE N0ETH-WE8T PEOVIlSrCES OE INDIA. 177 



I watched the construction of four cells in June 1863 ; and the perfect insects were 

 matured August 12, 14, 15, and 16 respectively. This would show, what is really the 

 case, that the cells take about a day each to construct. In fact, in one case noted by 

 me, a cell was commenced, finished, stored with food, and closed within certainly ten 

 hours, which is quite possible if both sexes work, as I believe to be the case. 



Sometimes, however, a hollow bamboo is the situation selected by this insect. If it 

 be tolerably thick there is room for several cells ; and they are built from the bottom of 

 the hollow upwards, either in a straight line or spirally (vide PL XIX.). In either 

 case I believe the single series to be constructed, and the second series commenced 

 from the very bottom on the completion of the first. In some cases there are as many 

 as eight or ten cells in each line ; and probably more than one pair of insects are con- 

 cerned in this double series. 



And this leads me to one of the great difiiculties in observing this class of insects. 

 There are many parasites, one or two of which will be hereafter noted. Many, too, of 

 the wasp class seize on cells and fill them with caterpillars or spiders, so that one some- 

 times finds one cell with bee-bread in it, and another, undoubtedly made by the same 

 Megachile^ filled with insects stored probably by a Pelopceus. 



There are also dipterous insects (Anthrax) who pierce the cell-cap and deposit an egg 

 in the food, their larvse feeding on the grub of the bee ; so that when one keeps them 

 to watch the insects emerge, most strange results follow. 



Mr. F. Smith tells me that the lower cells of the series above mentioned in bamboos 

 are those of females, which sex takes longer to develop, and that thus an exit is not 

 required for them so soon as for the occupants of the upper cells, which are males. 

 It had often puzzled me how this was managed. 



Megachile proxima, Smith. 



This insect is so similar to Megachile lanata that had I not caught one with a cut 

 leaf of the Clitoria creeper in its mouth, and traced another to its burrows, I had held 

 it to have been that insect. 



Digging between three or four inches in the soft soil I found two cells one over the 

 other. They were composed of these cuttings, four or five folds of leaf, and quite 

 loosely put together. . Within was a mass of bee-bread, with a young grub head down- 

 ward in the midst. This grub was almost transparent, and cylindrical in form. 



When opening one of the cells of this insect, I observed that it appeared to be lined 

 with a finer and lighter-coloured leaf than that which constituted its external covering. 

 Mr. F. Smith tells me that he found this to be the case with an English species 

 (M. argentata) ; I have therefore held the fact to be worthy of note. 



As i have observed a bee of this species entering a hollow bamboo of suitable 

 diameter with a piece of leaf in his mouth, I have reason to believe that they avail 

 themselves of such situations as well as of the ground. All this class of insects, 



VOL. VTi. — PART III. April, 1870. 2 c 



