The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1890-12-06
The lEAF-cuTTlNG BEE.
Strange Doings Of Particularly Indus
trlous Insect.

Strange Doings OF Particularly Indus.
trious Insect.
OF all our visitors, however, the
most interesting is the leaf-cutting
bee, who comes to work upon an old
fashioned blush-rosebush which forms
a part of a side wall OF our parlor.
Bees, you know, are such busy Great
ures that they can not even make q
call without taking their work with
them, and it was the faint sound of
his industry that first drew attention
TO our new friend on aleaf of the rose
bush. Looking closely to see what the
stranger was about, we were amazed
to find that, having placed herself
astride of the edge of the leaf. the bee
was deliberately cutting out with her
jaws a piece of the leaf, rolling it
up beneath her as she did so. We
tried to trace her fight when the
cutting was done. but this astonishing
visitor baffied US IL cur pursuit by dis
appearing quite suddenly into the
earth-just where we could not dis
cover.
When all these strange doings were
related at the dinner table the family
punster declared that such a perform
ance of bee on a leaf was clearly be-
yond belief, and had not the bee con-
tinued her visits, giving all an oppor-
tunity of forming her acquaintance
and seeing her work, the truth of our
account OF Mrs. Bee might still be
doubted.
Happily she was not easily disturbed,
and at a call from some watcher in
the outdoor parlor, "The bee is at
work, we could gather quite closely
around to observe her, when she had
carefully chosen the leaf that best
suited her and began the work of cut
ting it. Toward the close of the sum-
mer the selection OF leaves was made
with greater care, sometimes as many
as six leaves being inspected before
one was found sufficiently tender for
her purpose. Often when Miss Bee
started for home her roll OF work was
80 heavy that she fairly tumbled off
the leaf with it, and had to pause an
instant to recover her balance before
bravely carrying it away. But where
did she take her load, and what did
she do with those nicely cut pieces of
leafP She was too busy to tell us; and,
although we were eager to return her
calls, we could not discover her home,
and could not imagine why she cut
rose leaves so industriously, until we
happened upon book, Fors Clavigeu,
one day which told us all about it.
1t seems that these bees build nests
of the leaves of the rose and other
trees under the surface of the ground
or in old wood. These nests are some
times six inches deep, and generally
consist of six or seven cells, each
shaped like a thimble, the closed end
OF one thimble fitting into the open
end of another When cell is formed
of the pieces of leaf, such as we've
watched the bee cut out, it is filed
with honey, and SO nicely are the
cells built that they hold the liquid
honey without leakage. On the cell
full of honey an egg is deposited, and
then the cell is closed with three cir
cular bits Of leaf for cover Mr..
Ruskin says the bee pushes down the
little cell covers with a tucked-up rim
quite tight, like the covering of pot
of preserves. Z" Think of each young
bee having nice little pot of honey
all to itself!-Harper's Young People.