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©^S^2 
ROSE INSECTS. 
tions of the leaf upon which the larva is feeding, and which it has not yet actually detached from the 
leaf; Fig. c indicates the narrower part of the case formed of portions of other leaves, fig. a showing 
the opposite leaflet almost entirely stripped to its mid-rib; one portion having been consumed, and 
another portion employed in the construction of the narrower part of the ease. 
The proceedings of this larva in the manufacture of its case are full of interest ; it will be observed, 
for instance, that the instinct of the insect teaches it to arrange the narrow strips of the rose leaf, of 
which the case is formed, in a spiral direction, that being the only method in which greater length 
can be given to the ease, in order to keep pace with the increased size of the insect ; the spire is kept 
in its position by means of silken threads, which the larva weaves from its mouth, and by which it 
attaches the mouth of the case to the leaf when it has finally detached the strip. As the soft skin of 
the larva requires a covering for a defence, so the insect, on the slightest alarm, withdraws into the 
mouth of the ease, otherwise when it desires to feed it protrudes the front of the body for about a 
quarter of an inch out of the mouth of the case, and then gnaws the rose leaf at its ease ; the pair of 
legs at the end of its body enabling it to keep firm footing within. Now it will be seen that the 
length to which the body is protruded is just the width of the strip of the leaf of which the case is 
made, and so it is that, commencing at one end of a leaf, it cuts away the strip, fastening it by degrees 
with silken threads to its house. Huber has given a very full account of the proceedings of a species 
with precisely similar habits, found upon the nut, a translation of which appeared in the " Annals of 
Natural History " a few years ago. The curious reader will, in this memoir, notice not only the detail 
of the proceedings themselves, but the intensely inquiring mind of the author, whilst his name is a 
guarantee for the correctness of his observations. 
The Leaf-cutter Bee. — This species of solitary bee measures about half an inch in the length 
of the body, the female is black, clothed with ashy coloured hairs ; the jaws are large, terminated by 
four teeth, and the antennae are scarcely longer than the head, and black ; the wings are subhyaline, 
darker at the tip, with blackish veins ; the legs are hairy, with the spurs testaceous, and the pollen 
brushes of the hind legs golden yellow. The abdomen is heart-shaped, the joints rather depressed at 
the base, and each with a patch of whitish hairs at the sides ; the extremity of the abdomen is acute 
and its under side clothed with a dense golden yellow brash of hairs. The male has the body more 
densely clothed with yellowish hairs; the antennx are longer than the head, the jaws are bidentatc ; 
the face with a dense yellowish beard between the antenna;, the fore-thighs outwardly at the tip dirty 
yellow, the abdomen oblong-subglobose, its extremity inflexed, obsoletely toothed. 
This is one of the species (of which there are several) which employs particles of the leaves of the 
Rose tree for the lining of the cells of which its nest is composed. According to Gcoffroy, it makes 
the burrows for its nest in old wood, and the trunks of decayed trees; but Mr. Trimmer found one in 
a dccaj'ed window sill, and also in the cavity of a brick wall. He also obseiwcd, that it makes use 
of the leaves of Mercurialis annua, as well as those of the Rose. The nest itself is cylindrical, some- 
times six inches deep, consisting of six or seven distinct cells, each lined with, and separated from 
each other by, portions of leaves cut so as accurately to fit the required space, each of these cells being 
shaped like a thimble ; the convex end of the second fitting closely into the open end of the first, and 
the third into the second, and so on, with respect to the rest. Although honey-tight, the portions of 
the leaves are not glued together, but simply placed in close juxtaposition. The mode in which the 
pieces.of leaves are cut is as expeditious as if it were done with a pair of scissors, and some particular 
kinds of Hose trees are evidently better fitted for the operations of the bees than others ; indeed we 
have sometimes noticed a tree of which scarce a leaf did not exhibit the marks of the bee's visits, 
whilst others in the neighbourhood remained imtouchcd by them. "WTicn the bee has selected a leaf 
she alights upon it, sometimes upon the upper, sometimes on the lower surface, and at others upon 
the edge, so that the margin passes between her legs, generally also she fixes herself with her head 
towards the apex of the leaf. Immediately on alighting she makes an attack, keeping the edge of 
the leaf between her legs; those of one side being above, and the other below it, so that the section 
keeps giving way with her, and does not interrupt her progress. She makes her incision in a curved 
line. When she has nearly detached the portion she lias been employed upon from the leaf, she 
balances her little wings for flight, lest its weight should cany her to the ground, and the very 
moment it parts from the parent stock, she flies off with it in triumph, bent between her legs, and per- 
pendicular to her body. Within the cells lined with these portions of leaf, she introduces amass of 
pollen paste, depositing an egg in eacli cell, and the larva>. when hatched, feed upon the pollen and 
undergo their transformations within the cell. Figure l.</ and// represents two incisions made in I lie 
leaf by the bee, and Fig. h the bee itself engaged in making another incision. 
MlCROSETIA CENTIFOLIELLA. — This minute, but brilliant moth, does not measure more than one- 
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