148 APIDJ5. 



flint stones used in the rock- work of a garden ; for in both situations 

 I have found them. Its nest was once discovered in the tube of a 

 fife that had been left on a shelf in a garden-arbour. This remark- 

 able example of insect-economy is preserved in the collection of 

 insect-architecture at the British Museum. The bee had constructed 

 fourteen cells, a fifteenth being left unfinished ; the insect had 

 entered the fife at the lower end and commenced the first cell a 

 quarter of an inch below the mouth-hole. In France this species 

 has been bred from snail-shells by M. Bellevoye ; in the shells of 

 Helix nemoralis and also of H. hortensis the cocoons were placed.in 

 succession singly ; but in the shells of H. pomatia they were found 

 in succession placed side by side, from two up to six, according to 

 the width of the whorl. The Osmice lay up in each cell that they 

 construct a store of food consisting of a mixture of pollen and honey, 

 upon which the larva feeds. When it is full-grown the larva spins 

 a tough darkish brown cocoon, in which it remains a few weeks, 

 before it changes to the pupa state ; the majority soon arrive at their 

 perfect condition ; many, however, pass the winter in the larva 

 state. In attempting to account for so remarkable a circumstance 

 all must be conjecture ; but it is not of unfrequent occurrence. Osmia 

 leucomelana, according to present observation, always excavates its 

 burrows in the pith of dead branches of the common bramble : with 

 little labour the parent bee removes the pith, usually to the length 

 of from five to six inches ; at the end she deposits the requisite 

 quantity of food, which she closes in with a substance resembling 

 masticated leaves, evidently vegetable matter : five or six of these 

 cells are usually constructed in one bramble stick. The bee does 

 not remove the whole of the pith, but alternately widens and con- 

 tracts the diameter of the burrow, each contraction marking the 

 end of a cell. The bee deposits an egg on the food immediately 

 before closing up the cell ; it is oblong, white, and about the size 

 and shape of a caraway-seed. The larva is hatched usually in about 

 eight days ; it feeds about ten or twelve, when it becomes full- 

 grown ; it then encloses itself by spinning a thin silken covering, in 

 which it remains in an inactive state until the following spring, 

 when it undergoes its transformations, and usually appears in the 

 perfect condition in the month of June. 



Osmia fulviventris burrows in posts, rails, or decaying trees, sel- 

 dom in any other situation: the same habit will be observed in 

 0. cenea ; but it is not constant, for I have observed this bee more 

 than once constructing its burrow in the mortar of walls and also 

 in hard sandbanks. 0. aurulenta and 0. bicolor are bees that 

 commonly burrow in banks, both being very abundant in some 

 localities, forming colonies; but although it is undoubtedly the 

 natural habit of these species to construct tunnels in hard banks 

 with great labour and untiring perseverance, still we find them at 

 times exhibiting an amount of sagacity and a degree of knowledge 

 that at once dispels the idea of their actions being the result of a 

 mere blind instinct, impelling them in one undeviating course. A 

 moment's consideration will suffice to call to mind many tunnels 



