374 



HABITATIONS OP INSECTS. 



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 observed 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 artificers 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 re- 

 ception of their young with an elegant coating of flowers or 

 of leaves. Amongst the most interesting of these is Mega- 

 chile^ Papaveris, a species whose manners have been admi- 

 rably described by Keaumur. 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 be- 

 tween 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 ofl* the superfluous parts. 

 Beginning at the bottom, she overlays the walls of her man- 

 sion 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 

 completed 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. ^ The 

 great depth of the cell compared with the space which the 



1 Apis.**, c. 2. a. K. 



2 ReauiTi. vi. 139— 14«. 



