42 The bbe-keeper'S guide ; 



black, and the males light yellow. My students told me the 

 females would not sting. I said that was strange, and picked 

 one up. I threw it down very quickly, and have not repeated 

 the experiment. 



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, some 

 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 con- 

 centric layers, letting them overlap. 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 cairtridge. When several 

 are placed together, which is usually the case, they are 

 arranged end to end, and in size and form are quite like a small 

 stick of candy, though not more than one-third as long. 

 These cells I have found in the grass, partially buried in the 

 earth, in crevices, and in one case knew of their being built in 

 the folds of a partially-knit sock, which a good house-wife had 

 chanced to leave stationary for some days. These leaf -cutters 

 often have yellow hairs underneath their bodies, which aid 

 them in carrying pollen. I have noticed them each summer, 

 for some years, swarming on the Virginia creeper, often called 

 woodbine, while in blossom, in quest of pollen, though I have 



