THE HOME OF THE BEES, 373 
Her young are not, in this supposed retreat, entirely 
free from danger. The most invidious foes enter in and 
attack her young, Three species of Ichneumon-flies, two 
of which belong to the Chalcid family, lay their eggs within 
the body of the larva, and emerge from the dried larva 
and pupa skins of the bee, often in great numbers. The 
smallest parasite, belonging to the genus Anthophorabia, 
so called from being first known as a parasite on another 
bee, Anthophora, is a minute species found also abun- 
dantly in the tight cells of the Leaf-cutter bee. 
The interesting habits of the Leaf-cutting, or Tailor- 
bee (Megachile), have always attracted attention. This 
bee is a stout, thick-bodied insect, with a large square 
head, stout, sharp, scissors-like jaws, and with a thick 
mass of stout dense hairs on the under-side of the tail for 
carrying pollen, as she is not provided with the pollen- 
basket of the Honey and Humble-bee. 
The Megachile lays its eggs in burrows in the stems of 
the elder (Plate 10, Fig. 9), which we have received 
from Mr. James Angus; we have also found them in the 
hollows of the locust tree. Mr. F. W. Putnam thus 
Speaks of the economy of M. cent ris, our most com- 
mon species. “My attention was first called, on the 26th 
of June, to a female busily engaged in bringing pieces of 
leaf to her cells, which she was building under a board, on 
the roof of the piazza, directly under my window. Nearly 
the whole morning was occupied by the bee in bringing 
pieces of leaf from a rose-bush growing about ten yards 
from her cells, returning at intervals of a half minute to a 
minute with the pieces which she carried in such a manner 
as not to impede her walking when she alighted near her 
hole.” We givea figure of the Leaf-cutter bee in the act of 
cutting out a circular piece of a rose-leaf (Plate 10, Fig.8). 
