250 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 
others select, with the like object, empty snail-shells.1 One remarkable 
peculiarity of some of these insects is, that they conceal the place where 
their cells are situated with some extraneous material. Thus O. gallarum 
hides the galls it has adopted by glueing round them. oak leaves, and a 
species which M. Goureau conceives to be O. bicolor employed a whole day 
in arranging over the mouth (as he supposes) of its cell pieces of grass 
about two inches long, in a conical or tent-like form?: and that this species 
employs this material for some purpose connected with its nest is confirmed 
by Mr. Thwaites, who observed a female for a considerable time fetching 
similar pieces of grass, and laying them over a snail-shell, where he had 
every reason to believe she had formed her cells. Unfortunately neither 
M. Goureau nor Mr. Thwaites could pursue their observations, not having 
been able the following day to find any trace of the labours they had ob. 
served on that preceding. 
The works thus far described require in general less genius than labour 
and patience : but it is far otherwise with the nests of the last tribe of arti- 
ficers amongst wild bees, to which I shall advert—the hangers of tapestry, 
or upholsterers—those which line the holes excavated in the earth for the 
reception of their young with an elegant coating of flowers or of leaves, 
Amongst the most interesting of these is Megachile’ Papaveris, a species 
whose manners have been admirably described by Reaumur. This little 
bee, as though” fascinated with the colour most attractive to our eyes, in- 
variably chooses for the hangings of her apartments the most brilliant 
scarlet, selecting for its material the petals of the wild poppy, which she 
dexterously cuts into the proper form. Her first process is to excavate in 
some pathway a burrow, cylindrical at the entrance, but swelled out below 
to the depth of about three inches, Having polished the walls of this little 
apartment, she next flies to a neighbouring field, cuts out oval portions of 
the flowers of poppies, seizes them between her legs and returns with them 
to her cell; and though separated from the wrinkled petal of a. half. 
expanded flower, she knows how to straighten their folds, and, if too large, 
to fit them for her purpose by cutting off the superfluous parts. Beginning 
at the bottom, she overlays the walls of her mansion with this brilliant 
tapestry, extending it also on the surface of the ground round the margin 
of the orifice. The bottom is rendered warm by three or four coats, and 
the sides have never less than two. The little upholsterer, having com- 
pleted the hangings of her apartment, next fills it with pollen and honey to 
the height of about half an inch; then, after committing an egg to it, she 
wraps over the poppy lining so that even the roof may be of this material, 
and lastly closes its mouth with a small hillock of earth.t The great depth 
. of the cell compared with the space which the single egg and the accom- 
panying food deposited in it occupy deseryes particular notice. ‘This is not 
more than half an inch at the bottom, the remaining two inches and a half 
being subsequently filled with earth When you next favour me with a 
visit, I can show you the cells of this interesting insect, as yet unknown to 
British entomologists, for which I am indebted to the kindness of M. 
Latreille, who first scientifically described the species.® 
Megachile centuncularis, M. Willughbiella, and other species of the same 
1 Westwood, Mod. Class. of Ins. ii. 274. 
® Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, ix, 123. 5 Apis, **. c, 2. «. K. 
4 Reaum. vi, 139— 148, 5 Latr. Zist, Nat. des Fourmis, 297. 
