3874 THE HOME OF THE BEES. 
She alights upon the leaf, and in a few seconds swiftly runs 
her scissors-like jaws around through the leaf, bearing off 
the piece in her hind legs. “About noon she had proba- 
bly completed the cell, upon which she had been engaged, 
as, during the afternoon, she was occupied in bringing 
pollen, preparatory to laying her single egg in the cell. 
For about twenty days the bee continued at work, building 
new cells and supplying them with pollen. . . . On the 
28th of July, upon removing the board, it was found that 
the bee had made thirty cells, arranged in nine rows of 
unequal length, some being slightly curved to adapt them 
to the space under the board. The longest row contained 
six cells, and was two and three-quarters inches in length 
the whole leaf structure being equal to a length of fifteen 
inches. Upon making an estimate of the pieces of leaf in 
this structure, it was ascertained that there must have 
been at least a thousand pieces used. In addition to the 
labor of making the cells, this bee, unassisted in all her 
duties, had to collect the requisite amount of pollen (and 
honey?) for each cell, and lay her eggs therein, when. 
completed. Upon carefully cutting out a portion of one 
of the cells, a full-grown larva was seen engaged in spin- | 
ning a slight silken cocoon about the walls of its prison, 
which were quite hard and smooth on the inside, proba- 
bly owing to the movements of the larva, and the eon- 
sequent pressing of the sticky particles to the walls. In 
a short time the opening made was closed over by a very 
thin silken web. The cells, measured on the inside of the 
hard walls, were .35 of an inch in length, and .15 in 
diameter. The natural attitude of the larva is somewhat 
curved in its cell, but if straightened, it just equals the 
inside length of the cell. On the 31st of July, two fe- 
male bees came out, having cut their way through the 
