Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . for the purpose offorming their singular nests. The rose is the plant which isgenerally employed, though the leaves of several other plantsare also brought into requisition. NESTS OF THE MEGACHILE. 513 Even the same species is very variable in the position of itsnest. Mr. F. Smith remarks that our best known species, Mega-chile ccntuncularis, sometimes burrows in decaying wood, some-times in the soft mortar of an old wall, and sometimes in theground. Within these burrows it makes its cel
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . for the purpose offorming their singular nests. The rose is the plant which isgenerally employed, though the leaves of several other plantsare also brought into requisition. NESTS OF THE MEGACHILE. 513 Even the same species is very variable in the position of itsnest. Mr. F. Smith remarks that our best known species, Mega-chile ccntuncularis, sometimes burrows in decaying wood, some-times in the soft mortar of an old wall, and sometimes in theground. Within these burrows it makes its cells, which areformed from the cut leaves, and look very much like a numberof green thimbles stuck into each other. There is now beforeme a specimen which was not made in a tunnel at all, the beehaving made its way into an outhouse, and placed its nest on ahigh shelf. It has generally been supposed that the cells weremade by bending the leaves and allowing them to press by theirown elasticity against the side of the burrow. But the existenceof this nest shows that the bee can make its cells independently. Fig. 276.—Megachile inonstrosus.(Deep purple and white.) of the burrow, and that it can bend and fasten together the leavesby its own unaided efforts. In Mr. Homes paper on the Indian hymenoptera, there is avery interesting account of the manner in which various speciesof this genus build their nests. One species, Megachile fasci-culata, consrtucted its leaf-cells in the hollow handle of a largegarden vase, a number of the nests being built closely species, Megachile disjuncta, uses mud instead of leaves,and makes two earthen tubes, side by side, sometimes givingeach of them a curious twist in the middle. Megachile lanatais also a mud-builder, and works in a variety of ways. Thefollowing is Mr. Homes account of this insect:— This insect is found in almost every house in the North- L L 514 INSECTS ABROAD. West Provinces, and, next to the black and yellow Pclo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
