178 MESSES. C. HOENE AND E. SMITH ON HTMENOPTEEA 



although generally consistent as to food, vary much, according to circumstances, m the 

 places where they build their homes. Only one pair work together ; and they are not at 

 all social, although working often in the closest proximity. 



Megachile fasciculata, Smith. (Plate XIX. figs. 1-10.) 

 This fine bee may be observed on the rose-bushes, steadily cutting out portions of the 

 leaf. Each portion is of the same shape, which may be observed in the figure of the 

 leaf; and the work is done in a very rapid manner. There are long pieces and circular 

 ones, the latter being for the caps of the cell. From their size, these bees are easily 

 traced to their nests, which are placed in any suitable hollow; but their favourite posi- 

 tion is between bricks in masonry in places where the mortar has fallen out, and I have 

 often taken out series of cells laid side by side in long lines measuring seven or eight 

 inches and containing perhaps fifteen cells each. 



From observation, I should think that one pair of these insects will construct from thirty 

 to forty cells. These cells are very nearly the size and shape of a common thimble ; and 

 some that I examined contained thirty-two pieces of leaf, being of seven thicknesses, 

 besides three round tops each, placed one over another. The leaf employed was in this 

 case that of the " urhur" plant, a large Indian pulse {Cajanus indicus) which grew in the 

 field close by, and which is very soft and easy to cut ; but in another instance, which is 

 also figured with this paper, the material consisted of the leaves of the rose Edwards 

 {vide PL XIX. fig. 7). This mass of cells, in which there are no less than seven series, 

 was in the ornamental ear of a garden vase, into which I had observed the insect carry- 

 ing leaves {vide PL XIX. fig, 1). 



The cells are carefully constructed ; and the interior pieces of leaf appear to be slightly 

 cemented together by some fluid, ejected by the insect, of a gummy nature. The exterior 

 leaves are quite loose, but hold firmly together on account of the manner in which they 

 are dove-tailed, each one overlapping the other, as is clearly shown in the figure {vide 

 PL XIX. fig. 4). Directly one cell is completed, a very large quantity of bee-bread is 

 collected and stored, filling nearly half of it. The lining and exterior leaves of the cell 

 appeared to be constructed of the same quality of leaf An egg is then laid on the 

 top, in the middle of the mass of food, from which the grub emerges a semitransparent 

 cylindrical sac with a little black head. It rapidly increases in> size, as shown in the 

 Plate, where the subsequent changes being figured they need no further description. The 

 head remains attached to the food, which, entering at the mouth, passes out as excre- 

 ment above ; this, when the grub spins its cocoon, is excluded. This spinning is effected 

 after the larva has consolidated the inner surface of the cell with what looks like dark 

 glue ; and the said cocoon is an extremely tough one, and fit to resist the attacks of all 

 parasites, by which these bees are much molested. Between the consolidation of the 

 wall of the cell and the cocoon remain the exuvise, which, as before mentioned, have 

 been voided upwards. 



