34
PLATE CXX.
other, as (hewn in our Plate, and cementing them together with *glutinous substance; thus the sides and bottom, each consisting ofseveral layers, being finished, (in the form of a thimble) the Beepartly fills it with a kind of paste, then throws over it a small quantityof leaves, reduced to powder, and deposits the egg; the covering tothe whole is formed of the same materials, and in the same manner asthe bottom ; when she has forced about ten or fifteen circular piecesof leaves into the avenue and cemented them to the top, the coveringis completed, and the egg is completely secured from accident.—Thecovering separated is shewn in the Plate, at fig. 3, the larvae, at fig. 2>
In this manner she proceeds with, and finishes every cell distinctly,till the perforation is entirely filled : in some trees forty or fifty suchperforations are placed within a quarter of an inch of each other.—■The Bee comes forth late in August ; if the lowest is formed beforethose above, it eats its way up the channel, through their cafes.
Mr. Adams , in his Esiay on the Microscope , mentions a remarkablecircumstance of a Bee (we suspect of this species). A friend of mine(fays he) had a piece of wood cut from a strong post * that supportedthe roof of a cart-house, full of these cells or round holes, three-eighths of an inch diameter, and about three-fourths deep, each ofwhich was filled with these rose-leaf cases, finely covered in at top andbottom.”
* We learn this post was fir.
PLATE