STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
10S 
did she not take the precaution of balancing on her wings for a 
few moments before making the last cut. As soon as the por- 
tion of leaf is severed, she flies away with it to her burrow, and 
then arranges it after a truly curious fashion. 
Bending each leaf into a curved form, she presses them suc- 
cessively into the burrow, in such a manner that they fit into 
one another, and form a small thimble-shaped cell. At the 
bottom of the cell she places an egg and some bee-bread, this 
substance being composed of pollen mixed with honey, and 
then sets to work upon another cell ; and in this manner she 
proceeds until she has made a series of cells, some two inches 
in length. When the cells are first made, the natural elasticity 
of the leaf renders them firm, and as they become dry and stiff 
in a few days, they are then so strong that they can be removed 
from the burrow, and handled without breaking. 
There is another bee allied to this genus, that employs the j 
petals of the scarlet poppy for this purpose, but unfortunately 
it is not a native of England. Another species of burrowing bee, j 
Megachile centuncularis , seems rather capricious in its choice 
of burrows, at one time making its tunnel into an old post or 
decaying tree, at another into the mortar of old walls, at another l 
into the ground. It is extremely variable in size, sometimes 
barely exceeding a quarter of an inch in length, and sometimes 
reaching twice that size. 
Very many species of pith-boring insects are known, most of 
them inhabiting the dry twigs of the bramble and garden rose. 
If at the cut end of a branch a round hole be found in the pith, 
the observer may be sure that a nest of some kind is within. 
Generally, on carefully laying the branch open, there appears a 
whole series of cells, one above the other, and in such a case, 
the cells which are farthest from the aperture always contain ; 
the larvae of female insects, those nearest the entrance being } 
the males. 
Sometimes the nests which are found in the bramble contain 
the larvae of Osmia leucomelana , a pretty little bee, scarcely 
more than a quarter of an inch in length, black in colour, with a 
very glossy abdomen, and a white, downy look about the legs. 
