Below the oval beetle cocoon, find the horizontal branch. Its small leaf-lined cells belong to Wood’s rose-cutter bee.
Leaf-built nurseries
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She cuts a nearly semicircular piece of leaf with her jaws, then carries it back to the burrow.
Leaf-built nurseries
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Curved pieces fit together into a little thimble. Inside go an egg and provisions of pollen mixed with honey.
Leaf-built nurseries
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One cell, then another: a nursery assembled along the burrow. Wood’s building material is leaf, not rose petals.
A familiar rose leaf becomes a small container. Wood’s rose-cutter bee nests curved pieces together, provisions each cell and repeats the process along a burrow. The relevant cells occupy the horizontal branch in this composite plate; the oval cocoon above belongs to a beetle. Source: Homes Without Hands, physical PDF pages 202–204. The colour-remastered plate is repeated for a guided reading; cutting and carrying are described in the text, not separately depicted. Colour remasters are modern artistic interpretations.