UPHOLSTERER-BEES. 59 



bablv the grub spins the vermicular ceils previous to 

 its metamorphosis. 



It might prove interesting to investigate this more 

 minutely; and as the bee is by no means scarce in 

 the neighbourhood of London, it might not be difficult 

 for a careful observer to witness all the details of this 

 singular architecture. The bee may be readily known 

 from its congeners, by its being about the size of the 

 hive-bee, but more broad and flattened, blackish 

 brown above, with a row of six yellow or white 

 spots along each side of the rings, very like the rose- 

 leaf cutter, and having the belly covered with yel- 

 lowish brown hair, and the legs fringed with Ion"- 

 hairs of a rather lighter coloui. 



A common bee belonging to the family of uphol- 

 sterers is called the rose-leaf cutter (Megachile cen- 

 tuncularis, Latr.). The singularly ingenious habits 

 of this bee have long attracted the attention of na- 

 turalists, but the most interesting description is given 

 by Reaumur. So extraordinary does the construction 

 of their nests appear, that a French gardener havinn- 

 dug up some, and believing them to be the work of 

 a magician, who had placed them in his garden with 

 evil intent, sent them to Paris to his master, for ad- 

 vice as to what should be done by way of exorcism. 

 On applying to the Abbe" Nollet, the owner of the 

 garden was soon persuaded that the nests in question 

 were the work of insects ; and M. Reaumur, to 

 whom they were subsequently sent, found them to 

 be the nests of one of the upholsterer-bees, and pro- 

 bably of the rose-leaf cutter, though the nests in 

 question were made of the leaves of the mountain- 

 ash (Pyrus aucuparia). 



The rose-leaf cutter makes a cylindrical hole in a 

 beaten pathway, for the sake of more consolidated 

 earth (or in the cavities of walls or decayed wood), 



