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THE HUMBLE-BEE

ITS LIFE-HISTORY
AND HOW TO DOMESTICATE IT

WITH

DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE BRITISH SPECIES
OF BO MB US AND PSITHl'RUS

BY

F. W. L. SLADEN

KELLOW or THF. ENTOMULOr.lCAI. SOCIFTV OK LONOON
AUTHOR OF 'li^L'EEN-REARlNr, IN EXOLANO '

/I.LUSTKATF.D WITH rllOTOCRAP/lS AXD DKA IIVXGS RV THE AUTHOR

AXD Fir£ COLOVKED ELATES rHOrOGKAEHED DIRECT

ERO.U XA rVRE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

IQI2

;trJ.<

COPYRIGHT

l*!!^

:LV:':«*-'«^^fsla'ii^ J?f-isi!^7-i:i : k«J^• •

PREFACE

The title, scheme, and some of the contents of
this book are borrowed from a little treatise
printed on a stencil copying apparatus in August
1892.

The boyish effort brought me several naturalist
friends who encouraged me to pursue further the
study of these intelligent and useful insects. Of
these friends, I feel especially indebted to the late
Edward Saunders, F.R.S., author of The Hynnen-
optera Andeata of the British Islands, and to the
late Mrs. Brightwen, the gentle writer of Wild
Nature Won by Kindness, and other charming
studies of pet animals.

The general outline of the life-history of the
humble-bee is, of course, well known, but few
observers have taken the trouble to investigate
the details. Even H offer's extensive monograph.
Die Humvicln Stcicrmarks, published in 1882 and
1883, makes no mention of many remarkable
particulars that I have witnessed, and there can
be no doubt that further investigations will reveal
more.

VI

THE HUMBLE-BEE

An article entitled "/.W, ,-„ Captivity and
Habits oU,.,,yrns^' that appeared in the En^o.o.
log'sts Monthly Maga.:nc for October ,899 con-
tained my original division of the species of /,W./.„,
.nto pollen-storers and pocket-makers, and gave
accounts of the self-parasitism of certain species and
of the parasitism of ^. terrcsMs upon B. luconuu

Among matter now published for the first time
are particulars of the Sladen wooden cover /or
artificial nests, and details of my humble-bee house
By the employment of the covers anybody may

attract humble-bees to nest in his garden, and by
obtaining a little wooden house and furnishing it
as directed, one may study at leisure and in comfort
all the details of their interesting and intelligent
ways. °

The study of humbie-bees has hitherto been
hampered by the difficulty, encountered even by
expenenced entomologists, in separating some of
the species. It is hoped that the colour-photographs
used ,n conjunction with the descriptions giL'
will now remove this difficulty.

My .hanks are due to Messrs. L. S. Crawshaw,
I VV. Cunningham, Geo. Ellison, P. E. Freke,
A. H. Hamm, VV. H. Harwood, Rev. W F
Johnson. Rev. F. D. Morice, Messrs. e' b'
Nevinson, H. L. Orr, and Rupert Stenton for
."formation kindly supplied about the distribution

^y^^^f-:<Mj' m-

PREFACE

Vtl

of the rarer species and varieties in different parts
of the kingdom, and, in many cases, for the gift
or loan of specimens.

I desire also to acknowledge the kind help of
the officials of the British Museum and of the Irish
National Museum in granting me every facility for
examining specimens in these national collections.

F. VV. L. SLADEX.

Ripple, Dovtk,

t-Tit.

^i^^k^s^^^t&^^'^YWm

9

C,^^H^

CONTENTS

I. Introduction
II. Life-history of Uombus .

III. I'SITHYRUS, THK UsURI'KRliF.h

IV. pAk.\SITF.S AND ENEMIES OF THE HUMI11,F;-I!EE

V. Finding and takinc Nests
VI. A Humule-Bee House

Vli. DO.MESTICATION OF Till; HuMI1I,E-I5EE

Attracting Queens to occupy Artificial Domiciles
Getting Queens to breed in Confinement
Placing Queens in Empty Nests
Complete Domestication
Vlll. How TO DISTINGUISH THE BRITISH Sl'ECIES

Preliminary Remarks
Table of the British Species
Bombus lapidarius

,, lerrestris

„ lucorum

„ soroiinsis

„ pratorum

„ jonellvis

„ ,, '>(ir. nivalis

,, lapponicus

„ cullumanus

,, ruderatus

„ hortorum

„ latreillellus

„ distinguendus .
ix

12

• 59

73

. 83

94

I02

!04

'3°

. 136

139

'43

'43

'52

'54

.58

160

162

165

167

168

169

171

■ '73

■79

182

. 187

THK HUMBLF-BEE

V"l. "--.'.vnN,;......,,: Hums., smn. (.../-.

l'">Mil)us ilcrh.imclliis

.1 syKariini

M •■iKfiiiiii

i< liclferaniis

1. niu^<()iiiin

" " ^■'"•. sinithi.iiui

" P'linoniiii

iJistinrtion between l!,„nln„ a.ul I'M.hyrus
I'sithyrus lupestris
vestali^
.. (listinctUb
Ijaihutelhis
camjie'.tris
qiiadricoloi-
IX. Ox MA KIN-,; .\ Coi.I.KCTIOX .
X. A.VIXDOTES AND Nous
" -N'umber 30 '
A Kostcr-nidtlKr
An Observation .\e>t ,n my Stud
Observations on I'sithyrus
A Crippled Terrestris ^ueen
•Miscellaneous Xotos
Additional N'otks
Index

)•
189
191
19}
'VS
'97
200
301
203

2 06
208
2 10

214

216

2ti(

220

225

-» *» -

--3

^i7
= 5'

259

262

^7j
-79

ILLUSTRATIONS

I

A |)et ijuecn of ru'inl'U\ Urrestris incubating; her brood

l'fiiittispii\e
\Vin_;-ho()ks of luuiilni^ muuoiiiiii ..... (j

Antcnn;itlcancr in forc-IcK . .10

Diagram of loniiiicncing nest . rg

Hairs of huniblc-bee, ma^'niticd . . . . ;o

Pollen- collttting apparatus in hind- legs of queen and

worker lunnble-bee . . .21

Honey-pot from ne>t of Hoin/'tis l,if>i,i,u-iiis, seen from

8.

9-
10.
I t.

1 z.

'3-
14-
'5-

16.

17-
18.

Hon' jt from nest of lioiuhus lapid,iriu^, side view
Eggs, Kirva', and pup.u oi Ihnnt'Us tcircst-
Nest of /j. tirns/ris, showing groove in ujn. . 'ts

Diagram of the initial stages of the humble-bees . ,1
Comb of /I. lapidaniis, 'wing tuo honev-pots brimful

of honey ........

Comb of A. Idpiiiarius, showing group of half-full honey-

l)ots and irregular clusters of worker cocoons
'/onib of /)'. liii'oruni, showing ])ollcn-pots and luiney-pots
Comb of /)'. iit^roniii!^ showing i)ollen-pocketb .
Caterpillar of ^Iplioniia soiicUa; larva and puparium of

llrac/ircoiii'i i/c'7'<i : larva- of ro/i/rr^/.i hi'ii:i>vl,tns :

larva of /•"(^;/ /;/'.(
Spkccrularia howbi ......

Nest of lioinlius /u'llcrditus ......

Plan of Sladen's humble-bee house , .

:\i

26
26

28
30

38

39
41

42

74
80

91
94

\ll

I'HK HUMULK-nHH

''■'TV'"""" "^"'-1 "-" S-...I.-., ,.„„.,., "

lire li(iii-,r
:u. niOM.riM.Mso, Mor,-y, >|,„un M.,Mr..t.-lv

•""""''■"'"' ^-" ''-"•-... ana,,, „ul,.,„„„„,

tifsiin^ liuiiil)lc bie^

'>5

'45

-4- ^■'•""alMVtin„olSl,ulc„-, i,„.|,„„„,|,.
-;• K\t.-rn.il ,in,it..my „( /;, rujr,:,li,<

/•■ '■""""'("...1..). ,. ml A. /,,„,„,,,, „„,,^.^

1)1(111(1

IS;

-'V. llimlK,^ „f A',w/„.,- and /■,//,;„,,, ,,,,,,,,1,'.
.50. T,i, of al,.l„n,cn (umlcr-M.le) „f .he ,,,„,.ns of ,. ; ' f ,,„
Hru,shspc,u..of/.,,v,,,,,,,,,„,^„,^,,^^^,,^^ „_^^^^^
tlu' f,th ventral sc-nicnt .
i<. Antenna- of /V. rv^AzAv r ,.,,,1 /■, „.,,,,,,,,,. ^ '"•*

3--. iHnuc fo, cvdudn,^ ant. f,„n, lunul,lc.bc.\ „c>
.i ;. How to hold a hunihlcdnc
j4- Loads of pollen colluctcd by A;.,,,/,/

UJO

239

266

274

I'L.XTES

I. /u'w/'u. /,rn-s/,7s — ,iucu,. worker, a.ul

luii'ntiii

" ..

II. />Vw/7/i//-„/w«w— queen, worker, ami
jonclliis

•' ^"'''^■'•■'•"^ -two dark males, three dark c

■"•-lie. /-(./^vp. ,5s

'iiale. /^AV,-p. 172

jueens.

^I'EffMM^'l^^imij^.^^m

ILLUSTRATIONS

XIII

i. rt'iiir — •[ r'-n, ■.^'.;^er. \\A ni.iie. /.' 'i.c\\ \!.i

,' itr, ! '■' :'. 14, .. ,,

:hit:r:.:irrhili :
W lliinbu, toii'i: V.vi — ji;<en, Aurkif. .ir;'l v.'.-i ni ilt.'-'.

■.\,r iruii: - .j';een, v. .rker, .mi! nvi'e. /. •' ■ p. r'y:
i^^ti^ruii! -xV.xt.i: I, i'-'P.^. !v..i » irki_r-. :ir.ii V.'-" i-i.ilci

'li \,ir,i).i- ■ '>!')';r [- I'.'.i.Tin.
/:■:'' r i>::i, — -^xtv.. «./r'K',r. .in; maie.

v. I' :tr \>:i- rupL,:y: . .uc::. i.mI i.^al'--, 'I • f i^ p :j6

r (■ .'/.'.■

I z.v/:j/r;, — l.,h; '|jec;-.. ii^ht mile, .iml liu.-k hmIc
"I'i M.i:f; .i;rni::re^ of ri^! ;i.>; lir • -ii >pi_- ;c^ ')!' /:oi>r:i .imi

l'.:r/iv>u

p. ;:i

All thu -j.ei :mtn^ iliowr; ;:i tho p!.i'.'_- are lir

■ opt the

nc.rki.-r nf /;. ■;■ .7. j» <; ; , ■.',;.■ h ;- t'r.jm tiio Cauc.nu^ M-.c;-.- , li-,
ai.ii ilt'tci- tr";n I;r;'.i,p. -p^cancn- ::■ hav.n, '.i.t mj'I'jw on 'he
a'xlMi-.icn L'\tL:ul.n- f.ir-.h-. r or-, th-.- m; -t;.!Hf-n;.

.\ ini'iLir.eirtj -.-..Cis :-. -.\vr.\i\ uu p.:

:\ pa^tj 154.

M

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\

IXTRODUCTIOX

F,vi;rvi;oi)V knows the l)urly, t^food-naturcd bumble-
bee. Clothed in her lovely coat of fur, she is the
life of the gay garden as well as of the modestly
blooming wayside as she eagerly hums from flower
to flower, diligently collecting nectar and pollen
from the break to the close of day. Her methodical
movements indicate the busy life she leads — a life
as wonderful and interesting in many of its details
as that of the honey-bee, about which so much has
been written. Her load completed, she speeds
away to her home. Here, in midsummer, dwells
a populous and thri\ing colony of humble-bees.
The details of the way in which this busy community
came inU) being, what sort of edifice the inhabitants
have built, how they carry out their duties, and what
eventually will become of them will be e.xplained
later : it is enough at present to note that tiie colony,
like a hive of honey-bees, consists chiefly of workers,
small modified females, whose function in life is not
to give birth but to labour for the establishment,
bringing home and depositing in cells load after

I!

2 THE HnMHLK-nFE

load of swcctsahdr only relaxation n-onuhis arduous
o. b ung domcsfc work, such as tending ti.e youn.
,1, c,„„b, ,,„d kc-imig ,l,c ,„:st clean n.ui

The- suppcsiuon .h,u ,hc l,„„,Lic-l,e. worker is

-she labours w„h ,he sanu- .eal and ,irel,,s en.r,.v

nev„ ceasu,, unnN .on, ou.. she rails ,„,e ,1a,-';.;
i«ur„ home, and, bec„,ni„. drowsy and sense e„

pa-son.„fe.is,eneei„,,,eco,d.,r.hes„ceeed ;

, ]"'^':'' "-^^ ""' "<--ly so „un,erous as in ,

b.v-h,ve. bnt„ is se.ne compensation ,l,a, ,hev are
o ■• l-ser s,.e tl.an honey-bees, that they begin

.M->vorkatanearher.age, that their hours „r

labour are lon,,er, commencing earlier in the n,or

"... and cont,„ning until later at nigh,, and that th
are ntore hardy, ntinding less the spells of wintl , 1

'■""■ ''""' '-' -■'• f'-""' which no English s or 1
or summer is tree, sjinng

» >r.e gets a good idea of the cea.seless indnstr- of
a colony of hnu.ble-bees by watching for a w le',

..out o the hole leading to the domicile. Thug
he ot. I popnlat.on ,„ay not exceed one or t^o
""•-''-1. a nnntue seklo.n goes by w-i,hont several
departures .and arrivals, and tw, bees will , ft"
return together or pass one another: almost al

™un,n,g,,eeslutve,heirhindlegsladenwh"le
anc the.r abdon.ens distended with neoar

l-ancul writers have likened a colony of bee, to

a hngdon, or c.y : in reality it is an ordinary fandly

INTRODUCTIOX 3

although a large omt. There is the mother, whom
we call the queen ; and who lays the e;^'gs. Her
daughters, the workers, do not become independent
as soon as they are old enough to be useful, but, as
has been remarked, devote their energies to sup-
porting the family and rearing their younger brothers
and sisters. One of the peculiarities of the bee family
is that all the work is done by the female members.
The father has died long before his children are
born. The sons are idle, contributing nothing to
the stores of the colony : in the honey-bees' family
they are maintained entirely at the e.xpense of the
colony, and, when food grows scarce, they are
turned out to die, but the humble-bee drones
maintain themselves, quietly taking their departure
from the nest as soon as they are able to tlv.

By far the most interesting ir.dividual in the
humble-bee family i^ the queen, because of the \ery
eventful life she leads. At first her duties include
those of the workers, her brood depending upon her
for everything — food, warmth, and protection from
enemies. .She nurses it with as much motherly
devotion, industry, and patience as we see displayed
by many birds and mammals in the care of their
young : she thus shows much greater capacitv and
higher iatelligence than the queen honey-bf;(-, who,
ted and attended by workers ihroughf)ut her life, is
not only inca[jable of providing for her-elf, but pavs
no attention whate\-eT to her (jrYsj^ring, and is merelv
a machme tor laying eggs in enormous numbers.

I he humbK;-bee and the honev-bee are the onlv

4

THE HUMBLE-HEE

be(-s in the temperate zone that produce workers
and dwell in comnuuiities.

The true humble-bees comprise the genus
Bombus.' Seventeen different species of them are
found in the British Isles. In addition, there are
SIX British species of the genus Psithyrus,- com-
prising the parasitic humble-bees.

Most of the British species of humble-bees are
black with bright yellow bands, which, however,
are sometimes absent, and with a white, orange,
or red tail. The remaining species are more or
less yellow or tawny.

Humble-bees are essentially inhabitants of the
north, and they (lourish best at about the latitude of
Brita. Europe, Central Asia, and i\orth America
are weii populated with them, especially the moun-
tainous regions. Even in (;reenland, Alaska, and
other dreary tracts in the far north, where the
summer is too short for the existence of honey-bees,
a few species are to be found, working diligently
during the light nights. " Others," in the words of
Shuckard, "occur far away to the north of east,
booming through the desolate wilds of Kamtchatka!
having been found at Sitka, and their cheerful hum
is heard within the Arctic Circle as high as P^oothia
Felix, thus more northerly than the seventieth

' '-.-.ek ,.i^aio,a.aun !.„„h,,). luuiunin-, l,u//i„^.. Dr. K-hno l,,i, ki„,ilv
<•...■■ I my ;u:cnt,„n ,., an iiucrc-i,.^ |.a,..^c u, ThcUit,. (/„V,V i,i. ,,„.•

\\"Ul.i 1 ucrc a l,umniini;.l,c<- \,1ouif,aoL m\<.T,Ta), and c^ul,! i-nlcr tin cav,-'
|i.n.lrat,n;; -he ,v. anJ ll- t-,.rn .n,k-r uhu'h ih.u ,1.., oona^al ,ln,clf '' ' V.,n
.ioa:i,\u.,s,.,. tl,eu..r.l ..Mia!ly,,„|lnyc,! r.,r .i,e hun.l.k-l.c., , ■' l-v \n.tu
Piian.-., ;(,;,/,, ,07, a,,,l l,y Ari-t,,lle, //, -. ../;,„„. j,. .,0 and ^{ ' '

- l'r.,n,,unrnl/.,7,;;™, ^ ,-, „„ r.,,,k ^.,,,,0., «ln,,,uin,, iwu.cnn. .ht-
liaii.-, lii alluMon t.i tliL-ir >ofi(.-r Imni.

'"^r^'-mMh^s^^^^

INTRODUCTION 5

parallel. Thtjy may perhaps with their music
often convey to the broken-hearted and lonely exile
in Siberia the momentarily cheering reminiscence
of joyful youth, and by this bright and brief in-
terruption break the monoton' us and painful dul-
ness of his existence, recalling the happier days of
yore."^

In the Himalayas they are to be met with at all
altitudes from 2,000 to over 12,000 feet. But in the
plains of India there are none, nor do they exist in
Africa, except along the north coast, and Australia
and New Zealand have no native species. Where
they occur in the tropics they are generally confined
to the mountains, although Brazil has a few^ indolent-
looking species.

It is safe to say that the total number of species,
i.e. of forms that do not interbreed, exceeds a
hundred, and that the lesser varieties amount to
more than a thousand.

It is charming to watch a populous colony of
humble-bees busy on its comb, each individual
wearing the beautiful livery of its particular species.
Each species has its own peculiarities ot habit and
disposition, so that even in the British fauna there
are plenty of different natures to study.

Investigating the habits of humble-bees, and
experimenting in different ways with them, has been
a source of great pleasure to me since boyhood.
Colonies have been kept under observation in arti-
ficial domiciles ; the ins and outs of their lives have

■ /.';•/•///; AVv/, by W. ].. shuckaiM, iS()S, icije 78.

6 THE HUMBLE-BEE

thus been laid bare, and their requirements, which
are quite different from those of the honey-bee,
have been studied and supplied. In addition.'
various attempts have been made with queens to
establish the colonies artificially ; these have been
partially successful, and have revealed several
interesting facts about humble-bees, especially re-
specting their adaptability to treatment and their
intelligence.

Only a very few of the numerous queens that set
out in the spring with so much promise succeed in
establishing colonies. Their failure is due not so
much to unfavourable weather as to the attacks of
enemies. In its early stages the brood is very
liable to be eaten by ants or mice : when this danger
is past a humble-bee of the idle genus Psit/,)^nis
may enter the nest, kill the queen, and make slaves
of her children ; at a still later period the brood may
be consumed by the caterpillars of a wa.x-moth.
As soon as any of these foes have found and entered
the nest there is no escape for the inhabitants from
destruction, and it has given me a good deal of
pleasure to try and protect the bees that have been
under my care from them.

It may be asked : Can humble-bees be made to
produce honey for human consumption.^ Under
favourable conditions humble-bees store honey, the
tlavour of which, as most schoolboys know, is
excellenc; but, unfortunately, the amount in each
nest never exceeds a few ounces, so that to obtain
a quantity many colonies would have to be kept,

, INTRODUCTION 7

and even then the work of collecting it would be
laborious.

The tongue of the humble-bee is much longer
than that of the honey-bee, consequently she can
extract honey from llowers having long narrow
tubes, such as red clover, honeysuckle, and hore-
hound, which are seldom or never visited by
honey-bees. As a rule these (lowers are very
melliferous. Indeed, the heads of the r(;d clover
contain more honey than almost any other tlower, a
fact appreciated by children, who pull out the tubes
and suck them. Humble-bees have almost a mono-
poly of the vast amount of honey that is produced
in a red clover field, but there are not enough of
them to gather much of it.

Nevertheless humble-bees are extremely valu-
able for fertilising the numerous (lowers that they
frequent. Whole groups of plants bearing long-
tubed (lowers, including many species valuable to
man, depend chielly upon humble-bees for their
propagation. Charles Darwin, in the On'<;/n of
Species, said : " I find from experiment that humble-
bees are almost indispensable to the fertilisation of
the heartsease ( Viola tricolor), for other bees do not
visit this dower." In consequence of the absence
of humble-bees in New Zealand it was found that
the red clover did not produce seed freely. So
in November and December 1884 a number of
queens were sent from England to that country,
with the result that two species, B. tcrrestris and
B. rmici utus, have become establ.shed there, and

\\

8 THE HUMHLE-HKE

the red clover mow yields a plentiful crop of seed.
Unfortunately, /,". U-rres/ris has a trick of biting
holes in such (lowers as the hroad-bean. snapdragon,
and foxglove, close to the honey-glands, to abstract
the honey. This, in New Zealand, has resulted in
damage to the .seed-vessels of certain flowers, and
the seed-growers there would now be glad to have
this species sujjplanted by another.

The world, which to us consists of sights and
sounds, to the humble-bees is made up mainly of
scents. I can find no evidence that they hear any-
thing at all. It is true they can see near objects,
and are e.vpert at distinguishing flowers by their
colours ; but darkne.ss prevails inside the nest, and
here everything is perceived, so far as one can tell,
by the senses of smell and touch, both of which are
conveyed through the antennae, these organs being
m constant motion, investigating any object to
which attention is being paid, whether it be honey,
pollen, brood, comrade, or nest material. It cannot
be doubted that these and many other things that
have little or no smell to us are recogni.sed by their
difterent odours. Humble-bees can readily dis-
tinguish the smell of their own species and that of
other species with which their lives are connected
in places that have been frequented by them, and
B. tencstris is almost as cjuick as the honev-b'ee to
discover honey or syrup. They resent, with an-rv
buzzmg the least whiff of human breath in tbtir
nest, so the observer should breathe through a
corner of his mouth, a habit easily acquired. Vet.

IXTRODUCTIOX 9

in the case of most species, if the nest is uncovered
cautiously, the inovint^^ of the material and the
sudden flood of h'j^du appear not to he noticed,
thou<,rh the bees gradually realise that somethiiiL;
is wronj;, and, if left lonj^ exposed, will run off in
search of material with which to re-cover the nest,
liumhle-hees possess, in common with other

.A*-

'///A.ii*'^

-3
J

1

r 1*. I — A . i'. irtion nf pi lal'-iior nuri;;!! ' -t li irc-w mil; "i l'^'!H',ii >■: u ■. .;■■' ii! i jiit-rn.
-'■11 frum bciitMlti. /''. {.'iji'it.'^ji'iniliiiL; Miitt-rii ir in>ir^,ii -I hiiiil-wiii,;, ^■■■■ii

tlolll .lljoVi-,

bees, various peculiarities of structure adapted for
special uses that it is hardly within the .-icope of
this monograph to describe in tletail, but a few of
the most interesting may be here referred to.

I'irst may be mentioned the wing-hooks, antl 1
cannot do better than quote iiingham's description
of these : " The winged hymenoptera are. as a rule,
capable of sv/ift and sustainetl flight. bor this
pur[inse they possess a wonderful arrangement (one
of the most beautiful in nature) for linking together,
during flight, the fore- and hind-wings, i'.xamined

lO

THE HIMHLH-HKH

with a good lens, the fore -wing is st-en to have a
fold along its posterior margin, while on the anterior
margin of the hind -wing a row of hook -shaped
bristles or hairs can be easily detected. When the
wings are expanded these hooks catch on fn-mly to
the fold in the fore-wing, and the fore- and hind-
wing on each side are enabletl to act in concert,
havuig the appearance and all the firmness of a
single membrane."' In the humble-bees the wing-

-i%^
i^^%

Vnk'nn.i-tlianer in hin

hooks number from i; to :;4. Their position is
indicated in Fig. 25, p. 14^.

Another remarkable structure is an antenna-
cleaner in the front legs. This consists of a semi-
circular incision in the metatarsus, fringed with a
fme comb. When the leg is (le.\ed a knife- like
spine hinging from the tibia can be made to shut
down over the incision. Thus a hole is formed
through N-hich the antenna is frequently drawn to
rid It ot any pollen grains or particles of dust that
may have clung to it.

' l-.tin:.,., l:r,liJt In.i.a Uymnu;u,a, U ( . T. l;in-haiii, 1S97, vul. i.
pp. \iii .iii'l i\.

IXTkODUCTIOX

1 1

1

The tongue {Vv^. 25, p. 145), using the term in
its wider sense, is a complex structure consisting of
an outer and an inneT pair of sheaths, the maxillae
and the labial palpi, which enclose the true tongue,
this being in the humble-bee anil its allies a long
hairy organ having a groove on its under sid(;. The
honey is suckeil up by the dilatation and contraction
of the groove and of the tube made by the sheaths
around the tongue. When not in use the whole
apparatus is neatly folded away under the head.

Humble-bees breathe, not as we do through
openings in the head, but through small holes in
the sides of the body, called s[jiracles, of which
there are two pairs in the thorax and five pairs (in
the male six) in the abdomen. The spiracles of the
thorax, which are situated under the wings, contain
a vocal apparatus which is the source of the buzzing
sound made by the humble-bee when it is irritated.
Just inside the spiracle the windpipe is enlarged to
form a sounding-box, and the sound is produced by
the air expired passing over the edge of a curtain-
like membrane fixed across the mouth of the sound-
ing box. During the buzzing the wings, it is true,
vibrate or quiver and increase the sound, but if they
are removed the sound is still produced, whik; if
the thoracic spiracles are covereil, as Burmeister
showed, the buzzing ceases or becomes so feeble
that it is scarcely perceptible.

Other origans will be consick;red as occasion

arises.

II

I^II'IMIISTORV OI- /iOM/iCS

Tin-: story of tht; lih- of the: hiiml.Ie-h..-,: is ]arK<-Iy
th.-it of the queen. From start to finish she is
the central and dominating personage upon whose
genius and energy tlie existence (,f the race dejiends.
For she alone survives the wint.-r, and. unaided,
founds the colony in which she takes the position
of its most important member.

I he queen is rai.sed in company with main-
others in July or August, the rearing of the cjueens
being the final effort of the parent colony.

I'erlilisation is the first importar.t event In the
que.Mis life. This takes place in the open air as a
rule, but there are good reasons for supposing that
it can be accomplished within the nest. The young
queens are shy and show themselves very littler
The males course up and down hedgerows, or
hover over the surface of fields and around trees,
;n the hope of finding th<nr mates. Each species
has its particular kind of hunting-ground.

If, on a warm day in the month of July, one
takes up a position, out of the wind, in a partial

' 1 ; ." I

' ^ "T*:.

1*.

^jjij^

LIFIMIISroRY OF /!OAf/US 13

cltMriii;^ in .1 wooJ, near some bushfs or trees, one
is almost sure to see now ami then .1 hiimhle-hcc
tly swiftly by aiul finer .1 dark hollow iiiuler a trte
or shrub, where it pauses for a second, almost
alii^htinj,', and then passes out and proceeds to
another recess, wheTe it aL;a'n p.uises and almost
alights. I'-ach succeeilinj; bee llii's in the s.une
direction and visits the same s()ots. if these l)ees
be cau;^ht, it will b<- found that they a e all males
either of Ik prixloniui or />'. /lortorn.ii. This stranj^e
behaviour ol the male humble-bee has puzzled
many observers, l)ut 1 have noticed certain facts
about it that point to an explanation. A sweet
fragrance, likt; the perfume of tlow(Ts, is perceptible
about the pausinj,' places. This same fragrance
may be detected in thi; scent produced by a male
if he be cauj^ht in the fm^ers, althouL;h it is now
blended with an odour like that of sting-poison
emitted in fear. Kvidently, therefore, the males
emit the perfume in their [)ausinjj; places ; and 1
think it e.xtiemely likely that in doing so thev
attract not only one another, but the (pieens. The
males of the one species do not p.iuse at spots
fre(iuentetl by those of the other species, and we
may infer from this that each s[)ecies emits a
diffttrent scent.

The males of all the species are more or less
fragrant when captured, those of />. /a/n'i/h//i(s and
/). distnii^iit'iu/ns bring especially so. The scent,
I fmd, [)roceetls from the head, probably fron-; the
mouth. At the (.'AuX of August 19 10, my study

14

THE HUMBLE-BEE

was most pleasantly perfumed day after day by the
males in a nest of B. lapidarius that was standing
on a table there.

The males of B. derhamcllits often disport them-
selves around the nest, waiting for the f '.-eens to
come out; those of B. latreillcll:ts '\il! a!:,o do
this ; and I have seen a male of ,V rmieraths
ride away upon a queen as she was ^^"y Iroi i the
nest.'

Immediately after fertilisation the queen s-ieks
a bed in which to take her long winter sleep. The
queens of some of the species hibernate under the
ground, others creep into moss, thatcii, or heaps
of rubbish. I have found B. lapidaritts and B.
tcrnstris and occasionally B. riidcratus and B.
/ainillcUiis in the ground, />. lucoriim and /;. hor-
tontm in moss, and //. pratoniui sometimes in the
ground, sometimes in moss.

My observations have been made chiefly on
the underground-hibernating species, lapidarius and
tcrrcstris. Both species pass the winter in much
the same situations, but tei-restris likes best to
burrow in ground under trees, while lapidarius
prefers a more open position, almost invariably

■ i ho
Oli.jrl.iiiil
l)a~k .1
fcailuT, 1
wiii^s !ia
--ll'l .,!'
"/<'/. \/,i.' .>■

■-aml-wa-i
>aiiiL' hal/i

Kcv. .\. I-:. Kat,)ii ,.l,>rrvc.l tlio mak', uf A. n!,;ula.x in the licrner

. at an altita.le of over 6ooo luot, " ri-urtinL; to fav.airitc ^r.dt.-, to

t-ne <n .1 -|H.t ,,f l.are j;r.n,ii,l , hnv, rin- witli a -ra.lual fall' like a

hat en.I> alnin.,! imperce|ilihly in a .le.nl ^top, an.l -tanilinj,' «ilh

If .piea.l, lea.ly In .lart "!)' in an in>tani at llie lea,t alarm, Or tlie

my in-ect tivii'- pa..t." K. Saun.ler., in .luutni.i; tiiis in ilie h„lo-

M.'Hlhy Ma^ajn,- (April 1909, p. ,S4,!, calle.l attcnti n to the

tye> 1.1 the male ol A. iii,iida\, and to tlie lart that the nia]es of the

./.;.'■;/;/.■, «li,„e eyes aie so la'-e tliat tliey ciiile, ha\e exactly the

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOML \S

M

choosing the upper part of a bank or slope facing
north or north-west, thougii generally near trees.

In such banks I have sometimes found great
numbers of queens, chielly Uxpidarius, and ii is
easy to discover them, because in burrowing into
the ground each queen throws up a little heap of
fine earth, which remains to mark the spot until the
rains of autumn wash it away. The burrows are
only one to three inches long, and if the bank is
steep they run almost horizontally. They are filled
with the loose earth that the queen has excavated.
The queen occu[)ies a spherical cavity having a
diameter of about i^ inch.

It is evidently damp and not cold that the queens
try to avoid. Indeed, the northern aspect shows
that they prefer a cold situation, and the reason is
easily guessed. The sun never shines on northern
banks with sufficient strength to warm the ground,
so that the queens do not run the risk of being
awakened on a sunny day too early in s[)ring, for
the queen humble-bee is very susceptible to a rise in
temperature in the spring, although heat in autumn,
even should it amount to So" F., will not rouse her
when once she has become torpid. The cjueen
easily takes fright whiK- she is excavating her
burrow, and 1 find that many burrows are begun
and not finished.

The queen always fills her honey-sac with honey
before she retires to her hibernacle. This store of
liquid food is no doubt essential for the preservation
of life, and is especi.illy ne(;ded, one would think.

i6

THF HUMBLE-REE

r -

II I

15 ■■■

I

5

r

I I

during September, when the ground is often very dry
and warm.

Although the young queens nay S'^metimes Ijc
seen Hying in and out of the parent nest, I find that
the majority of them leave it for good on their first
day of llight ; anil as they are only occasionally ob-
served gathering nectar from the flowers, 1 think
that many, having filled themselves with honey
before they leave the nest, become fertilised on the
same day aiul immediately afterwards seek their
winter quarters.

During the first few weeks the queen sleeps
lightly, and if disturbed, for instance, by a visit
from an earwig, she wakes uj), creeps out of her
burrow and tlies away ; but when the weather erows
cold she folds her legs and beinls as in death,
sinking into deep tor[)or, from which she is not
easilv aroused.

The period of torpor lasts about nine months.
Early sijecies that commence slee[)ing in July, such
as /). pratoruni, are astir as soon as March and
April, while later kinds wait until May and even
June.

On sunny days in March the queens oi praloriDii,
tcrnstris, and other hardy species may be seen busily
rilling the peach-blossom, willow catkins, and purple
dead-nettle, but in the afternoon as the sun descends
and the air grows chilly they creep into hiding-
places, where they relapse into semi-torpor, remaining
in this cond.tion until a favourable day again rouses
them into activity.

LIFE-HISTORV OF BOMBUS 17

The weather improving, the periods of animation
become more frequent and last longer. Now each
queen sets to work to search for a nest in which to
estabUsh her colony. The nest is usually one that
has been made and afterwards vactited bv a field-
mouse, vole, or other small mammal, and consists of
tine soft fragments of grass or moss, or it may be
leaves, woven into a ball with a small cavity in the
middle. Most of the species choose a nest that is
under the ground, access to which is obtained bv
a tunnel varying in length from a few inches to a
yard or more, but generally about two feet. The
remaining species dwell in nests on the surface of
the ground hidden in thick grass or under ivy ;
these are often called "carder-bees" because they
collect material from around the nest and add it to
the nest, combing it together with their mandibles
and legs. But some of the underground-dwelling
species occasionally occupy nests on or near the
surface, often in strange situations, such as under
bo.xes or in old birds' nests, rotten stumps, or out-
houses, while some of the surface-dwelling species
are sometimes found inhabiting nests under the
ground, reached by a short tunnel.

In places where there is much moss or soft dead
grass the carder-bee queen may sometimes construct
the entire nest herself It often happens that the
mouths of the ho'es leading to the underground
nests are overgrown with grass or ivy and half
closed witii debris, consequently they are not easily
discovered, and the queens of the underground-

c

11

iS

THE IIUMBLIMU-I-:

h [■

n ?

t I

nesting species may ' c seen throiij^hout the sprint;

>vering over the groinul in wood, and meadows

naking a diligent search for them ; now and then

lh(; queen alights in a promising-looking spot and

makes a ck)ser examination of the ground on foot.

Having found a suitable nest, the queen becomes
rather excited and visits it frequently. Her first
flight from her new iiome is a momentous one, for
Irom it she has to learn how to find her way back
again to it. Having accustomed herself to the ap-
pearance of the entrance by crawling around it, she
ventures to take wing and poises herself for a moment
facing the entrance. Then she rises slowly, and,
taking careful notice of all the surroundings, de-
scribes a series of circles, each one larger and swifter
than the last. So doing she disappears, but soc/n
she returns and without much difficulty rediscovers
the entrance. Similar but less elaborate evolutions
are made at the second and third departures from
the nest, and soon h^jr lesson has been learnt so well
that her coming and going are straight and swift.

She now spends a good deal of time in the nest,
the heat of her body gradually making its interior
perfectly dry. If the nest has been long unoccupied
and is in bad repair, she busily sets to work to
reconstruct it by gathering all the finest and softest
material she can find into a heap, seizing and pulling
the bits of material with her jaws and passing them
under her body backwards with her middle and hind
pairs of legs ; then she creeps into the middle of the
heap and makes there a very snug and warm cavity,

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 19

measuring; about an inch from side to side but only
about five-eighths of an inch from top to bottom,
with an enirance at the side just hime enough for
her to pass in and out.

In the centre of the tloor of this cavity she forms
a h'ttle Uunp of pollen-paste, consisting of pellets
made of pollen moistened with honey that she has
collected on the shanks (tibia) of her hind legs.
1 hese she moulds with her jaws into a compact

pollen andefySJ

-^^^^rf^i:^^^ honey-pot

V\r..

honey k
pollen and €q<fS

-l)i.it,'r.uii iif iciiHiiu-ncini; .W -t.

mass, fastening it to the lloor. Upon the top of
this lump of pollen she builds with her jaws a circular
wall of wax, and in the little cell so formed she lavs
her first hatch of eggs, sealing it over with wax by
closing in the top of the wall with her jaws as soon
as the eggs have been laid. The whole structure is
about the size of a pea.'

The method of collecting the pollen employed bv
the humble-bee and honey-bee, and the apparatus
on the legs for carrying it out, are very wonderful
and interesting ; and as an essential part of the

' i ihink it I;kcly tisnt llie ci;j,'-< arc -oiiiciinics Ipiil in twu lut-, M-iarau-d by
an iiifnal i-l a ilay cir iwn. Tlicir numljcr varies from S to 16 : generally it
is aljMut ;.;.

m

-4
J

20

TlIK HUMBLIMU'E

\f. i

i

i;

]i I
it i

proc(?ss is not iiiciuion»'il in our text-books on bees
I will here refer to it at lenj;th.

! everybody has se<:n the loads of pollen, some-
times called wax in ignorance, on the legs of the
bees. The load is carried on the outer sitU; of the
tibia or shank, which is concave, smooth, and bare,
and fringed around the etlge with long stiff hairs
which act, as Cheshire observ(,-d. 'ike the sloping
stakes that the farmer places round the sides of his
waggon when he desires to carry hay. Tnis outer
side of the tibia with its surrounding wall of hair is
called the corbicula or pollen-basket.

In some llowers, such as wallllower and red ribes.
the pollen is gathered by the mandibles, as noticed
by Crawshaw, but in others it collects
among the hairs of the body, especi-
ally those clothing the thorax and
underside of the body, these being
branched and thus admirably adapted
for retaining it.

According to Hoffer (/)/c Hiivi-
meln Stcicnnarks, p. 37), the humble-
bee brushes the pollen with the two
first i)airs of feet out of the body

^

f

X 50

V\

CorbKuia hairs forwards to the mouth, there

chews and kneads it with honey and

iiirs.if Huiiii/i.-beo, its saliva mto a sticky paste, lays

""-""'"'■ hold of it again with the feet, and

presses it with the help of the middle legs on to the

corbicula. Ikit I believe the process is different in

an important detail.

I i

'■ • MFH-IflSTORY OF /.VU/Z.T.V 21

In the hind-legs, the next joint below the- tibl.i.
called the metatarsus, is enlarged into a sub-
rectangular plate, which is densely clothed on the

corbicula

tccen er
— comb
auricle

<- ■ I'. U'' lllim.U r ^.M,.,Il

inner side with stiff bristles forming a brush. In a
pollen-collecting honey-bee this bru.^h is nllcd with
moistened pollen, which is evidently on its way to
the corbicula. Cheshire states that the metatarsal

ft

22

TIIH nUMHLF-Hi:i-:

1

ll I
h i

l)riish of the rio;ht \v.^ transfers its pollen to liic
corbicula of the left leg, ami rnr zursu. but he
goes on to say that the transfer is (■ffected i)y the
metatarsus scraping its brush on tlu; upper edge
of the tiliia ' My own belief i.; that the jjollen is
scraped off the nvtatarsal brush by a comb, sitiiaK-d
at the end of the liitia on tht; inside, into a concave
receiver there. When the leg is straightened a pro-
jection on the metatarsus called the auricle enters
tin; receiver, compresses the poll(;n, and pushes it
out on to the lower end of the corbicula, where there
is a break in the surrounding wall of hair, and
plasters it to the mass of pollen already collected in
the corbicula. binally, the met.itarsus of the middle-
leg is used to pat the pollen down on the corbicula.

1 his opinion is supported by (i) the- structure of
the i)arts, (j) the fact that when the bees are collect-
ing pollen from the llowers they rub their hind-le-gs
together in a longitudinal direction and do n(jt cross
them, and (;) an examination I made of the load of
a honey-bee, which consisted partly of white and
partly of orange-coloured pollen. The orange pollen
(which had evidently been gathered la-t, because the
metatarsal bushes were filled with (...uic-e Dollen i
was found only on that part of the corbicula that
was nearest to the auricle, where it had been forced
ui as a wedge between tiie white i)oI!en and the
corbicula, causing the whole mass of pollen to swell
and rise and also to buckle in the middle. The
outer side ol tlie lump o\ pollen was tinged on the

h I

h 1

.III i nu-':,, iiu. '::■ r, |.'. (,■;■;;, hire. 1 ^^^. \.

1. 1. : .1 'e i :

■i i.ii-i'-nisroKv ov a\\i//>v\

smi.ii-c with (ir.inu;i\ sli.n\ln|4 where the met.it.irs.is
ot the miiKlle le-, whieh hore oimh-c- pollen -r.iir.s,
h.ul ]\itteil it.

Tile s.iine i<r^,ins are jireseiit in ll'.e l-.-r.^I-Ie^ of
the huml)Ie-hee ^see l-"io. ^ ).

l"i> test the woikinq of tile .ipp.iratus I ] 'a.c.i
some poilen in the reeeiver ot' a le- ,>l' a ,]r.\r.
queen of />'. /,7/.'' /,/;,•.■/.>. an.l th< n -trai-h.ter.e/i th,<-
Ic.ia ; lh<- jxillen was at onc" transterreil to t'r.e
eorbicnla.

When the ]>ollen is liein;^ eollei t( d n a'.\\a\->
hei,nns to gather at tlie lower eiul i>!' the ktI icla.
aiul the reason is now elear. .\I>o th'' sn-.o. 'th. ,»:>;
sh'pi<er\- surt.ioc ot' th.e corhirula is e\plair,ei!, lor the
pollen slides u[) it. as the result ol' tlie v.\i\•:^<■r,K.■^
little C(MUril)utions tlelivered on to it In the .n.ri- ;(\

1 he tow hairs that obstruct the eiitr.uve t^' {'::■:
lorhicul.i number about three : ihev star..l a little
liistance inside tht- e-nlrance am! are wiilelv >ep.,rateii
troni one another. TIk y provi.li' a nu .uis -;
attachment tor the pollen until the .iccunuilatn:
mas^, has L;rown lari^e enough to be supported b\-
the hairs at the sides of the corbicula. 'I'Ik; ed^-- . i"
tile entrance to tiK; corbicula is denselv clotli>d with
tiutt (seen under the microscojie to l.)e nic^sdike
hairs), which probaljly serves the same ].urpose.

I he surtace of the recei\er is smooth except

• I:. ::.;• !i .nry-- -.j the !,ri<;-'. i;i V,..- :t;:.!i .; • .■ ; ;■ : ,, .-.r;;.. a:-
.'irr.\r,.;f ! n 'en Ir.Tii-VLT-" r^jw-. ai: i are ai-u: a- u: :.■ a; ir' .a- •' ■■ ■ ■ . ■ ;
tho :v-h f ■):( !.:;i,.l r,,;i.;,. 1 - m \U l.ai.r/,:.; . .- ■;.. ;, .',.• ;. • arr : J- ; ;:
row-. In li any I™ 'll'^-C' .il-c';:;:; h ;:iil.'--i ■•■■- •!.■■ ^ti.-ji ci/aii- ::.\ a ]:■■:-
■-Iry ]. ,;1l-.-.. .ar.i ;hc nv'i.;:ii..- i- crjii"-! :'- i'- a; .-r i m--. \\':i:' h :- ■ f a- 'v
;})■: -:.A- ran tl.a' i- nv.cl, ■• an' ■_•■! ' v >:.■■ : ^ :>.

];•

■li

24 TIIK HUMlUJM?i:i-:

■.\lm\r the marj^iii bordcrin^r on the corhiciila. wIktc
it is finely striate, the httle furrows and ri.ij.;es
runnini; in th<> .lirection in which the pollen moves.
The auricle Ix-ars a tuft of hairs which helps to
.t,'uicle the pollen on to the corhicula.

Lon;,' hairs spring from either side of the entraiuf;
to the corhicula am! form over it an arch which
helps to sui)port the a umulated mass of pollen
without interferincr with the lU'livery of fresl, pollen
from helow. The arch is also of service in j,^uidin,<,'
the polkm on to the corbicul.i.'

lluml)le-I)ees workint; on the whitt; dead nettle
may be seen brushing' the pollen out of the hairs on
the front of the thorax, where it chielly gathers,
with the middle pair o! teet, the instrument used
being the metatarsus or basal joint of the foot,
which is modified into a brush like the metatarsus
of the hind leg. I have occasionally found a minute
ball of moistened j-ollen in the mandibles, which
seems to support Moffer's view that the pollen is
moisteneil in the mouth.

1 he wax of the humble-bee is much softer and

■ s^-^- "•■■- i-.ip''- •■ ll''« l-Mcii i-olloc-,.; i.v il:r S, cial la-o-. nm! th,- , ■„•
i''>'^"' ''V •■'■^- -^-i'^-^' :n the -r.^T^-." in iho /..;•;-: A, / !.,,::: (..r ] K: 14.
'""■ ^' ■' ■■ '■■■•f^ii-i \.':o-.Mi h.nv ihf C-.t;.!. ■,;;.! i, |.,.b!r.i'«rh Iv^llcn '■ iii •'„•
/•./■:/. ir A:.,: II. un:. In .1,,. \mw, ara..k- f,c ,o.-e:.,r i, n.uu..l ii.c
\' ■"[' ■;". ■ •"■ '■^'';1 '-'^■i'^ ■ ■'"- !li^' ctitraiuv -,. il,c r.-rLxiha :!)^ :.■„„,.■ ! ::.
■iirr-.i^.l ; . In H. ■'.■,■,■, .on-„.:,s. .i ii.unc ,•] (.\-nu.\\ Vx.,~')v. tin- ,,i Mrr.-'f
l..iw. ,.„ !ho 1.1,:-, ,uc r.-.'ucol to ,.,;. : „, the h.-n.v-'.c ll.^ :!.»,.„ ,!),. ],,IX

'^ ^V''"u' '"" ''"■"' '""' ' --'"^^■•■"> ''■"'- ^^'-q-: "iic. MUutc^ -..„.e «.iv

in-,., ih.- c-i,;,,,iNO. I.. ii„. ];,i„i|iK-,.. the «,.rkn;- .iirla.-c .,! ;hc rir.-C

'- '";^'>' "-"-•■ ■ "' ^" '•'- '^'■'^- '■-^- - ^- o.^eroi VMth ...nntoi teeth .nrhtun.:

'^' ji'lifli ll!i

In /v'l. .'(

■.V. .-■ M-t :,,

:"."■■'■■ /'•'■■""'• -.;.-".'// :i . .,i:r, ,:■:::,., .,l.| ,/ ;;„,..,,;;,, the auricle 1.
naiiv vM tite t.ittu ,;,;, : in all tl.e ^the, l;r;tNh s-ecies it i, tare there.

LiriMilSTORV OF JiO.U/hS

morr plasiio than l.tvswax, a.ul is of a l.n.vvn c.,l.,ur.
llntl.T considered that it was producrd, lik- th-
wax o\ tnc hoiK-y-Inr, fr<Mii the uiuh-r sid-- of thr
alHlomen, but I fnid that it cxudr< from !..-tue.n
the segments on the upper side of the abdom-n :
trom here it is collected on the brushes of th-- hir.d
metatarsi (see pa-es :oo-j). Ilou ;t is conveyed
to the mandibles I have never l)cen able to trace.
but that it is often dropped on to the co-d, and
afterwards picked up I have [roved by placing a
,i;ratinu of wire-cloth under a nest of /,/ .'■'.•; /,jr;.v,- -^jr.
three davs about 150 minute particles ,,f wax ha :
talien thrtnigh the gratint;.

The eggs oi tlie humble-bee are white and trc-:>-
lucent. and shaped like asausa-r bwt -'■■ d^'v -''-•'■•. r
at onv. vx\^\ than at the other. 'I"h»-v ar- :r. ,..:-,
larger than the eggs of the honeydK:e. their ]-r.:-\'.
being 2\ to 4 millimetres (about : inch.. Th ^-^ f
the large underground -dwelling sj.ecies ...•; •.:■-..■
longest. l>e:ng about three times as 1 :- as th-v .r-
broad : those o\ the carder-bees are nor . ,:dy 5-'- r.-r
but stouter, their length not exceedi;-.g r' :i:r.--
their width.

Tne queen now sits on her eggs dav a:;d ni^ht :o
keep them warm, only leaving them to coiiec: for.;
when necessary. In order to maintain ,-.r-.i:r..;.:ior.
and heat through the night and in bad weath-r ^^h-n
tood cannot be obtained, it is necessa^-y for i'or : ■
lay m a store of i;oney. She therefo.rH s';:- to- v, • -'■■
to construct a large waxen pot to hold th'.- hor.-v.
1 u:s pot :s built in the entrance pas-age of th-: ne~:.

I

26

I in: mJMiuj-.-HF'j'.

just I,, fort; ii opens into th(.- cavity contaiiiinij ili<-
Iii'iip of pollen atui c^ms, and is consequently
iletached from it.

TIk- completed lioney-|)ot is lar^r,; and approxi-
mately globular, and is capable of lioldin.i,' nearly a
thimbleful of honey. .Sev<Tal honey-pots from nt-sts
of Ii. liipi^iariiis that I measured wen; - in. to ■; in.
liigh and \ in. to ; in. in diam.^tcr at the .rreai.st

/.', 'w''-<i /.:fi.l III:,., srcn Ironi
.il'ini'. N iliir.il M/c,

'rill ~.imr, ^(.Ic \ K'w .

width, but I believe these dimensions are sometimes
e.xceedeil.

'I"he honey-pot is e.\ceetiin^t,dy delicate and fragile,
the wall beinj,^ thin as well as soft ; but being left
undisturbed, it remains water-tight for about a
month, which is as long as it is needed.

The queen re-shapes the mouth of the honey-
pot daily acconiing to her requirements. Thus, at
night, when the honey-pot is full of honey, the mouth
is attenuated and small— only aI)out a ([uarter of an

n iJi'i: INS roRv ()]• /;o.]//irs 2;

inch across, hut in tli.- morniii- altn- it lias hem
«Mn|)ti<Hl thcorili..- is larger, ihr lici-ht of tli.; pot
hciiit,r r(Hliic:c(I. Ih,- h<.n.-y contaiii..! in the lion.y-
IH)t is of miich tliinocr coiisisKiuy than that sif)nil
l>y honcy-ljccs, In .m whidi a threat deal of uat<;r has
been rcinovctl liy evaporation before it is s(;al(ti
ov.-r. On a favonral^h? day tlic (jiiecr. fills the
honey-pot in a very >,hort lime; in lay nests of
/>'. lapitiiiritts I have otf.n found it brimful at
0 o'clock in the mornin<r. It tak<-s the queen st-veral
days to conipl<-U; tae buildin- of the honey-pot
because of th(t lar^r,; amount of wax it n^quires, but
the honey is depositeil in it as soon as it is laroe
• •noui^h to hold any. I'.efor.; the honey-pot is mach-,
oralterwards, if the honey-pot is full, tluMiue.'n may
occasionally discharije her load of honey on to the
lloor, aiul sometime-s also on to the roof of the nest.
Althou<j;h the honey soaks into the nest-material she
is able- to suck up nnic h of it during the ni^'ht; what
remains on the floor is evaporated by the heat of
her body, leaving a sticky residue which glues the
nest-matcrial together and helps to make it im-
pervious to moisture.

In several nests of /.'. lapidan'ns anil (Mie of/)'.
hortorum I found that the construction of the honey-
pot was not begun until after the lump of pollen had
been made, and I think that this is usually the case.

Ihe eggs hatch four ilays after they are laid.
The larva- are maggot-like, being hairless and leg-
less, and as they begin to grow they assume a curled
shape, which is maintained imtil they are about to

m

^^mmfimm

28

THE HUMBLE-BEE

I \

I

pupate. When very small they are yellowish white,
but this colour soon changes to white with a grey-
pink tinge imparted by the internal vessels and their
contents.

The larvae, however, like the eggs, cannot be
seen, for the queen keeps them covered with wa.\,
in which they are completely enclosed as in a bag or
skin.

The larvae devour the pollen which forms their

IV;. 8.

i:i;i;s, l.arv;v, and l'u|,..- uf 'i.'mtus l,;r,-'/n ~ t

liglilly enl.iri;i-.l.

bed, and also fresh pollen which is added and
plastered on to the lump by the queen. The queen
also feeds them with a liquid mixture of honey and
pollen, which she prepares by swallowing some
honey and then returning it to her mouth to be
mixed with pollen, which she nibbles from the lump
and chews in her mandibles, the mixture being
sw.illowed and churned in the honey-sac. To feed
the larva' the cjueen makes a small hole with her
mandibles in the skin of wax that covers them, and

^j^^^^^m^m^MMm

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 29

injects through her mouth a little of the mixture
amongst the larva-, which devour it greedily. Her
abdomen contracts suddenly as she injects the food,
and as soon as she has given it she rapidly closes
up the hole with her mandibles. While the larva-
remain small they are fed collectively, but when they
grow large each one receives a separate injection.

As the larva grow the queen adds wax to their
covering, so that they remain hidden. When they
are about five days old the lump containing them,
which has hitherto been expanding slowly, begins
to enlarge rapidly, and swellings, indicating the
position of each larva, begin to appear in it. ''two
days later, that is. on the eleventh day after the
eggs were laid, the larva are full-grown, and each
one then spins around itself an oval cocoon, which
is thin and papery but very tough. The queen
now clears away most of the brown wax covering,
revealing the cocoons, which are pale jellow.

These first cocoons number from seven to six-
teen, according to the species and the prolificness of
the queen. They are not piled one on another, but
stand upright side by side, and they adhere to one
another closely, so that they seem weltled into a
compact mass. They do not. however, form a tlat-
topped cluster, but the cocoons at the sides are
higher than those in the middle, so that a groove is
iormed; this groove is curved down ards at its
ends, and in it the queen sits, jjressing her body
close to the cocoons, and stretching her abdomen
to almost double its usual length so that it will

t^*'-^ » .• .-f.

If i 3

i 5

30 THE HUMHLE-BHH

cover as many cocoons .is possible ; at the same
time her outstretched Ie(,^s chisp the raised cocoons
at the sides. In this attitude she now spends most
of her time, sometimes remaining for half-an-hour
or more ahnost motionless save for the rhythmic

Vu;. ij. W-sI of /I, tnintrii sh.ming tlii' «roovi- in which ihi' (Jiiocn sits.
Ill til'-- Frontispiece tile (Jiiccn is seen iiiciib.itiiii; the brood.

expansion and contraction of her enormously dis-
tended abdomen, for nothing is now needed but
continual warmth to bring out her first brood of
workers.

In every nest that I have examined the direction
of the groove is from the entrance or honey-pot to
the back of the nest, never from side to side. By

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMB US 3,
means of this arrangement the queen, sitting in h-r
groove facing the honey-pot-this seems to be her
favourite position, though sometimes she reverses
It — IS able to sip her honey without turning her
body, and at the same time she is in an excellent
position for guarding the entrance from intruders

After a period of rest the larvae change to pup.e
heads uppermost. About the tsventv- second or
twenty-third day after the eggs are laid the per-
fect worker bees are formed, and, biting a hol-
through the tops of their cocoons, they creep out
those in the cocoons in the middle of the groovf-
which have been kept warmest, emerging a dav or
two earlier than those at the sides. In the wor'k of
biting open her cell the emerging bee is generallv
assisted by the queen or workers, and she mak.4
several attempts to get out before the orifice is
large enough to permit her thorax to pass through

bhould the weather be cold or incubation be in-
terrupted, the duration of all the stages of develop-
ment is lengthened. Insufficient feeding also delays
the larval stage. Thus the time occupied from the
laying of the ^^^<g to the emergence of the bee some-
times extends to a month.

The coat of the freshly emerged bee is matted
and stuck down with moisture, and is of a uniformly
dull silvery-grey colour. Her legs are weak and
unsteady, and almost the first thing she dots is to
totter to the honey -pot. where she sloulv unfold.
her probo^cis and takes a sip of the life-supporting
drink. Then, refreshed and strengthened, she

ill

II i i

• I',

':'■::' ^::.> "^ ;■'■■■•. ..•r?'-

32 THE HUMBLE-BEE ,,

returns to the brood and nestles under the warm
body of her parent. About forty-eight hours only
are needed for her to acquire the handsome, well-
groomed appearance and the bright rich colours of
her mother, whom, indeed, she now resembles in
every way except in her diminutive size.

The worker humble-bee commences to fly and to
collect honey and pollen at a very early age. On
June 18, 1910, at 3 p.m., I happened to examine
one of my lapidarius nests and saw that no workers
had emerged. On June 20, at 8 r.M., four workers
were found in the nest, and one of them had already
got her full colour. On June 21, at 10.30 a.m., a
worker, evidently this '.:>e, was seen entering the
nest with pollen on her legs, so that she must have
been working in the fields when less than three
days old. The honey-bee worker does not, as a
rule, begin to gather honey until about the four-
teenth day after she has emerged. The habit of
collecting honey from the flowers comes by instinct,
and is not the result either of experience or learning.
When the larva; are spinning their cocoons the
queen lays some more eggs, placing them, as always,
in a little waxen cell, which, however, is now con-
structed in a convenient place on top of one or two
of the cocoons that form the sides of the depression
in which she sits. Further batches of eggs are laid
at int(?rvals of two or three days, so that in a short
time both sides of the groove are covered with cells
containing eggs and young larvae. All the eggs are
laid on one side of the groove, usually two or three

I '■

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMIWS ^2,
cellfiils. before any are laid on the other side. It is
an interesting fact that the cocoons on which these
eggs are laid are not absohitely upright but are in-
ch'ned inwards (see diagram), and the egg-cells are
constructed, not on the heads of the cocoons, where
they would hinder the exit of the emerging bees,
but on their outer sides.

As each cell seldom contains less than six, and
sometimes twelve or more eggs, a large family is
soon in course of development.

Fk;. io. — U

i.igram of the in,,,;,] s,,,i;,.s of tlu- 1 1,iml,le-l,o..-'s .".rood,
>ho\Mi ill vurtK-nl .scclioii.

The larvoi that hatch from the first of these
batches of eggs are generally approaching the most
rapid period of their growth when the first workers
emerge, and so the services of the latter commence
at the very time they begin to be most needed.

A little reflection will make it clear that the
cocoons in the first cluster and the cells of eggs
upon them are arranged in the best manner that
could be devised for deriving the most heat from
the queen's body. The cocoons are pressed close
together, those in the middle often assuming a
hexagonal shape (seen by cutting the cluster horizon-
tally into two parts), like the cells of a honey-bee's

D

I

!:

34 THE HUMBLE-HEH

comb. The interstices between the tops of the
cocoons are filletl witli wax. the surface of which
is beautifully poh'sheci, niakint; the jrroove in which
the queen sits smooth ami comfortable.

Four or five weeks of labour have told heavily
upon the queen ; the tips of her wings have become
torn and tattered, antl when she goes out to gather
food she works less energetically than formerly,
often stopping to rest on the leaf of a tree or on a
blade of grass. As soon as she finds that her
children are able to collect sufficient honey and
pollen for the maintenance of the little family, she
relinquishes this labour, and henceforth devotes
herself entirely to indoor duties, laying eggs in
increasing numbers and assisting the workers to
incubate and feed the brood. Sometimes, however,
the workers of the first batch are not sufficiently
large or numerous to support the colony. In this
case the queen continues going out to work until
more workers appear.

A queen of a prolific species like lapidarius or
tcrrcstris during her most productive period lays a
batch of eggs, on an average, daily.

The queen builds the special cell of wax to
receive her eggs upon a cluster of cocoons, gener-
ally forming it in a crevice where two or three
cocoons meet. I have, however, known a very
prolific lapidarius queen to construct an egg-cell
on a wax-covered cluster of nearly full-grown larva.-.

It IS very interesting to watch a lapidarius queen
lay a batch of eggs. An hour or two previously

LIFE-HISTORY OF nOJl/ncs 35
she commences to make the cup to receive them
by collecting wax with her jaws, and depositing
It in the selected place in the form of a ring,
enclosing a space •', in. to ] in. acro.ss. the size
depending on the number of eggs to be laid.
On this foundation .she builds the wall to a height
of about ,••',. in., no wax being i)laced in the
bottom of the cup. At first the building is carried
on intermittently and in a desultory manner, but
an increasing amount of attention is paid to it,
and the final touches are applied hurriedly. She
gives the observer the impression that she is afraid
the cell will not be finished before she has to com-
mence laying. Suddenly she leaves off work, and,
turning round, places the tip of her abdomen into
the cup, which she clasps with h-r hind feet. In
this position she remains for three or four minutes,
her sting appearing through the wall of the cell
every time an egg is laid. Directly she has finished
laying, she turns round again, and, with her jaws,
busily closes in the edge of the cup, and so seals
It with a round and smooth covering f wax. a
proceeding that occupies only a few seconds.

Each batch of eggs swells into a wax-covered
bunch of larv:e, and finally becomes a cluster of
cocoons. These clusters of cocoons lack the peculiar
shape of the first cluster; not only is there no
groove across the middle, but the cocoons in the
centre are considerably higher than those at the
sides, also the cocoons are less closely huddled
together and the wax is more completely cleared

■,%m^'^i»7^ik,wf'

36

THE PIUMBLIMil-K

away from them. 'I'lic cocoons, too, arc sli<;htly
larger, for the larva, nourished by so many nurses,
grow to a larger si/e and develop into larger and
stronger workers.

As the cell swells with the growing larva- the
bees are careful not to permit its area of attachment
to the cocoons to grow larger, and they k(:e|j clear-
ing the wax away from here, while to prevent it
from falling over they fasten it by two or thrfte
pillars or ties of wax to adjacent cocoons or to the
roof of the nest.

The larva- of />. tcnrsc'ris and lucoriuii do not
keep together in a compact mass, but as they begin
to grow large each one acquires its own covering
of wax, although they do not separate completely ;
the cocoons, therefore, do not form definite clusters,
and are easily detached from one another. On
the other hand, the bunches of larva; and clusters
ot cocoons of B. sy/vanun, agronim, and liclferanus
are very compact and globular, and are often
arnmged in a ring around the centre of the nest,
crowning the already vacated cocoons, and giving
the comb a beautifully symmetrical appearance.
I he larv.e and cocoons of lapidarius also form
compact masses, but two or more batches of worker
brood, of nearlv the same age. often coalesce as
the result of their egg-cells being placed in line in
contact with one another, consequently the clusters
ai J otten large and irregular.

With mi.ist oi the s[;ecies the skin of wax that
covers each batch yy\ larv:e is to the unaided eve

I f

mm^m^imisiA^^^. »«^ «i/;^aj«g^^t.;m:

» l-II'IMlIsrOKV OF A).]//,V\ ;;

uiihroki'u. I.m .,s til,. I.irv.,. ^row. /,'. Ar/rVr/.,
///.v/v/w, ,,iul /„/;,!//.■//;,, l,Mvr visil,!,- h.^l. s m th.'
w.iN, wliid,, ulu-n the l.iiv.r .ippnurl, Inll si/c. iM-cnmc
Lir^M'. rii.- larv,,- w.niKI now nm th(- risk o\ lallini^
out o\ their soft wax (■..v,Miii,r, „hi.h \v,miI,1 iikmii
their (IcstriK-tioM. f„r a nak..! larva is alwavs carri.ui
out of tin- nest; hut they avoid tliis dm^rr hv (m,-
closin.^ thcins.'Iv.-s in a lo..sr w.^h of silk.~iloino this
a clay or two hcfon- they h.^^in to spin th.-ir coummis.
A larva that happens to lie underneath a lari;v
number of .nhcrs ,-<nerally has to l-nild its onoon
almost hori/ontall), so that th.- end thron,i;h which
the perfect hee will escape may he free. Such a
larva often fails to ol.tain a sufficient supplv of
food, with the; result that it d.x's not ^^row to full
size and develops into a small hee. In this way
tiny workers— 1 have .s<;en some no larj^er than a
h()usf!-l]y— are sometimes producetl. particularlv in
the nests of the carderd)ees, who do not f-e.! their
young with such care as the underground species.
If the worker is much undersized, her wings are
almost sure to be malformed, so that she is n<ver
able to leave th(; nest,

I he workers do not continue to us.- the .jueen s
honey-pot. but, leaving it to grow mouldy and de, ,,y.
they stor(; the honey they gather in the cocoons th.'-y
have vacated, adding w.ix to the rims of thes- to
incn:ase their capacity. They also, when th- cells
are full, reduce the si/e r,f their mouths with wax.
The carder-bees, which produce little wax. usually
rely entirely on these vacated cocor.ns for the stora<:c

!

I

if

HI

■ I ?

' I I!

i.ll
i ^

38

THE HUMBLH-BEE

of their honey, but some of the unclert;rounil species,
namel)', //. /ii/>i</(ir/i/s, tcrrcstris, and liuorum, c(jn-
struct numerous waxen honey-pots as well. At first
only three or four of these honey-pots are made, and
they are a good deal narrower and less capacious
than the queen's honey-frat, but as the colony grows

K](i. ii.—Conil, of /,•. lapiJariuK, showini; two lioruy-pc,!,. hririiful of hoiav.

they are heightened, and their number is increased,
and may amount in a large nest to twenty or even
thirty : they are constructed at the side of the comb,
and are usually joined together, forming a single or
double row. In two colonies of lapidarins anil one
of tcrrcstris, in which I was able to find the remains
of the queen's honey-pot, I noticed that the first
new honey-pots had been built on top of it. The
honey in the honey-pots is always thin, showing

LI I'K- HI STORY OF />'().]//,' CS 39

40

Tin: HUMIJLH-BEK

i

fl '

that It is freshly j^athcrcd and consunieil even clay,
while the honey in the cocoons is thick, sometimes
exceeilinj^Iy so, snowin-; that it is stored in these
for use in times of scarcity. As the larj,rer and
newer cocoons become available for the storai^e of
food, the oldest ones at the bottom of the comb ,ire
emptied and .ised no more, except in a time of
plenty, when all the rest are full. In und(.-rground
nests, where all available space is likely to be need.^d
for the expansion of the comb, the walls of these
abandoned cocoons are often bitten down, and the
comb sinks. Wasps, it is well known, enlarge their
nest cavity according to their requirements by dig-
gmg out little lumps of earth and (lying away with
them, but I have never seen humble-bees do this.

The jjollen, which is really a stiff paste of pollen
and honey, is never put into the same cells as the
honey. During the feeding of the first larvie the
queen deposits her pollen around the cell that
contains them ; here it is soon consumed, so that
no receptacle is needed or made for it. Later on,
however, as the comb grows, the pollen is placed
in special cells, the nature of which depends upon
the species. Lapidarius stores it under the brood
m vacated cocoons, and sometimes also in small
waxen cells. Tcrrcstris and luconuii store it in one
or two, afterwards increased to three or four, large
waxen cells, which are built, sometimes singly,
sometimes joined together, on top of the cocoons
about, or not far from, the centre of the comb : these
wa.xen cells, as the co nb grows, rise like columns

';^f*^-^C^^''^

II LI FK- HISTORY OF HO A/ /US 41

to a ^Tcat hvv^hi, towc-riiig alx.vc tin- hrooil, aiul
contain an inum^nsc accumulation of pollen. Hui
the carder- bees, ami three or lour uiulerj^rouncl
species relaKid to them, l)uilci little pouches or
pockets of wax on to the sides of the wax-covered
bunches ol" larv;e to xccive the pollen, which, in

wajcen
ioney pots

H'., iJ.-l'lmloKr,.|,h of a comb of //. lu^orum, .l.ou.ni; |„,ll,.„.po., and
l-.ncy-pots. Th.- four polU-i,-,,o„ rose A ,n. al„nc U„- rc-st o( ll,. , „nb and
c.uh ol Hum «a, al...,,! ,u „,. h.^;!,, an.l \ ,„. ,„ .l,aMRl,T. "1 he ,|,a,' la
of ill.' eonib was 4,1. in.

their case, is gathered in comparatively small
quantities. Upon this difference in instinct 1
have grounded a division of the species, calling
those that store the pollen in cells detached from
the hunches of l.irva: " poUen-storers." and tho.se that
place it in receptacles formed in the sides of the
bunches of larva- "pocket-makers." '

/;«A'w...', ;,;.,,•■., Moiitluy Maguuu. fur the vear KS09, |>. 2jo.

^^

I I
U

11

i H

42 THE HUMBLE-BEE

This difference is really an important one, for
the phicing of pollen in contact with the brood
is a vestige of the method of feeding employed by
the solitary bees, which lay their eggs on lumps of
pollen that they have collected, the larVcX- feeding
themselves on the pollen ; and I have no doubt that

14. -eoiiil) of H. a^-rvniiii, ^liowini,' |iijlli-n-|)i)tki'ts In tlii- >i(li-, ■,!"
tlic Imnclu's <if I.ua.i-.

the larva- of the pocket-makers do partly ii^vx\ on
the pollen placed in the pockets, at least during the
earlier stages of their growth. It is only the pollen-
storers that, after the first batch has been reared,
quite abandon supplying their young with solid
l)olIen. and completely ado|)t the honey-bees' more
advanced method of Rteding with liquid food pre-
pared in the IjchIv of the bee.

r:;:^i4i*ii<

-^s^^inA&r^msiJSiW^dL 9Skii:^<%:h'seikm^^affr^!!smmmm:^^mfk'^^!mskiir^-^^

■ftsl^'^lS^^

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBCS 43

The underground pocket-makers, namely, riu/cr-
a/ns, hortonan, and lahrillcllus. and probably also
ihslwo;Hcmhts, a close relation of latrcillclius, prime
their egg-cells with pollen, placing a little pollen in
the bottom of each egg-cell constructed, and laying
their eggs upon it, and thus they preserve another
trace of the primitive feeding-method of the solitary
bees. These four species form a natural group',
which I propose to call "pollen-primers." They are
all large, with long heads and long tongues.

The pocket-makers, at least />'. rudcnxtus, dcr-
liamcllus, ap-orum, and hc/fcranns, make, as a rule,
only one pollen-pocket for each bunch of larva.-, but,
under certain conditions, they may make two (,r
three. When many larvx- are being reared by a
small staff of workers, the pockets are small, and
the pollen that is placed in them is p! .tered on to
the wall covering the larva-, from which it quickly
disappears, being no doubt consi:med almost im'-
mediately ; but when the population is greater, and
the weather being fine, pollen is gathered in plenty,
the pockets are large and cup-shaped, a.ul contain
durmg the d.iy a shallow store of pollen, the surface
of which is concave. In a nest of dcHuimcllus that
I took on July 2, 191,, in the height of prosperitv.
the pollen-pockets or cups were very large and of
an oval shape, several of them measuring ■:^ in.
long by • in. wide; they we're, however" quite
•shallow, the deptii of the pollen in them at the
centre being only about \ in., and there was
only one pocket to each bunch of larva-. Wh.-n

»!S;t^:'3H£^iSJ»i'Sr1t?Kti£UiE^

wm^u»i&f 'i.-CA^.

I!

! I

44

THE HUMBLE-BEE

the larVcTe are full grown the pollen-pockets are
destroyed.

When the usual receptacles for pollen employed
by a particular species are not available, it may
adopt those employed by others. Thus in a strong
nest of yy. aororum, one of the pocket-making
species that I had under observation in 1910,
the workers, during a period when there were no
growing larvae and consequently no pockets for
pollen, dropped all the pollen they brought home into
a spf jial waxen cell they had constructed, like tcr-
resiris, on the top of some cocoons. Also a colony
of B. hortonim, another pocket-maker, being in an
advanced stage, and having no growing larvcie, placed
pollen in the cocoons vacated by the young queens,
but only lined the interior of the cocoons with it.

In general, humble-bees, like honey-bees, prefer
to deposit the pollen in cells among the brood, and
the honey in cells farther off

It will be understood that the comb expands in
an upward and lateral direction. At the bottom
of the nest are the vacated cocoons, now filled with
honey ; lightly resting on these, with narrow gang-
ways for the i)ees in every direction between them,
are the clusters of cocoons containing pupa: and full-
fed larvai. Amongst and above these are the bags
ot wa.x of various sizes containing larvct- in different
stages of growth. I^'naliy, here and there, on the
clusters of cocoons containing the pupai and larva.-
are the iitlle sealed waxen cells containing ei-L'S.
i\o brood is therefore visible.

m

'^,y

.^fpmr^kM.

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 45

The nest material is pushed out to make room
for the growing comb, and there is always a space
for the passage of the bees between it and the top
of the comb. Over this space, and lining the inside
of the nest material, a ceiling of wa:: is generally
made in populous nests, the wax being worked into
a thin sheet as in the coverings of the larva and
the walls of the honey-pots. Provided there is
room for it, this waxen canopy is always found com-
pletely enveloping the top of the comb in populous
colonies of B. lapidarius, an underground-dwelling
species that produces more wax than any other.
Populous colonies of the underground species terres-
fris, lucoruvi, ruderatiis, and hortorum generally suc-
ceed in time in making complete canopies, but in the
nebts of the surface-dwelling species, which, one would
imagine, specially need such a protection to keep
out the rain, the waxen ceiling is, in most cases,
incomplete or absent, and frequently consists only of
a small disc of wax over the centre of the comb.
B. derhamcllns is particularly disinclined to com-
mence building a ceiling ; in several very populous
nests of this carder-bee no trace of one was seen.

In order to watch what is taking place in my
observation nests I have sometimes had to remove
the waxen ceiling. In a populous colony of lapi-
dariiis it has been entirely built again within two
days, the construction commencing at the sides of
the box, and the whole ceiling built from these with
no other support but that of the bees constantly
passing to and fro on the comb.

n

46

THE HUMBLE-BEE

m

i

n

Succeeding batches of workers emerge in due
time and the population of the colony grows rapidly,
a few fresh workers emerging every day : these
workers are still larger than the earlier ones, and
they are very capable and energetic.

Every active moment in the worker's life, which
lasts about four weeks, is employed in furthering the
prosperity of the colony. I-Lven before her full
colours have appeared she begins to nurse her baby
sisters, spreading her body over them and feeding
them. The adult worker spends the greater part of
the day journeying to and from the flowers, and she
seldom returns home without her abdomen distended
with honey, and the tibia of each of her hind legs
bearing a large pellet of pollen.

It is interesting to watch the worker put away
her load. After entering the nest she runs about,
feeling and smelling with her antennae, in search of
cells to receive it. Having discovered a receptacle
containing pollen, she takes a step forward so as to
bring her hind legs exactly over the mouth of it, and
rubbing them together, she detaches the two pellets,
which drop into the cell. Then she may turn
round and, putting her head into the cell, may spread
and plaster down the pollen with her mandibles, but
often she leaves this to be done by another worker.
Hastening to a cell containing honey she buries her
head in it, and her abdomen is seen to contract as
she regurgitates the honey. Next minute she is out
and away to collect another load.

She does not always drop her pellets of pollen at

W-^.-^

LIFE-HISTORY OF IWMBCS 47
tlu-' first attc-.npt. but. just as she is about to dislodue
tlicm she appears to be often seized with doubt as
10 whether they will fall into the cell, and, turning
round, puts her head into the cell : having thus re-
ascertauK-d its exact position, and perhaps reassured
licrsell of ,ts suitability, she again steps forward and
th.s tune lets fall her load. The queen, should she
be" near. ,s much interested in the arrival of the
pollen, and on one occasion I saw her nibble some
ot It off the workers leg while the latter was
t'Mgaged for a moment with her head in the cell.

When the weather is warm the workers are
particularly industrious in the cool of the evening
brnining home heavy loads until dusk. At night
the colony is even more animated than in the day-
time, for the whole population is now at home, and
each bee is occupied, some building, some feedincr
the larva.-, but the great majority slowlv creeping
over the brood in all directions, stopping now and
then for a moment or two to spread their bodies
over some portion of it. No special attention is
paid to the queen.

The surface-dwelling species often pass in and
out of the nest through a covered way under the
grass, more or less lined with fragments of dead
grass or moss, and e.xtending from four to t\ve;\e
inches from the nest.

The nests of the underground species are badly
ventilated, and in populous colonies, during the heat
of the day. one or more workers will station them-
selves on top of the comb or at .he lower end of the

h^'^MAr:_.mr

48 THE HUMBLE-BEE „

tunnel, there m.iintaining a continual fanning and
humming with their wings. Once, on a still day, I
discovered a nest of />'. pratoruni through the hum-
ming of a ventilating bee in the tunnel. Around
the fact that the fanning and humming are often
started early in th(; morning by a single bee standing
upon an eminence of the comb, early observers
wove a pretty story that the humble-bees possess a
trumpeter or drummer who at a certain hour ascends
to a box or stand contrived for the purpose on the
summit of the comb and sountls a reveille, calling
the inhabitants to begin the day's toil.'

' The follewini; ahricljjcil extract from tWuiire l>isflay',l, a translation
by Sanuul llimiplireys of /.,• Sff.lacU J,- la X.itmr, liy the Ahhi Noel IMiiche,
|nil)li>he.l in several e.litinns, 1732 to 1750, shows the (juaint ideas of this
period aUnit the behaviour of hiinilile-liees in their nest: —

" I have seen amongst my wild Ilees, and that very frci|iienlly. a largo
In-eet, much superior in Size to the rest ; it was as bare as a pluckt Fowl and
black as Jet or polished Kbony. This Kin;,' f;()es from time to time to survey
the Work : he enters into each particular Cell, seems lo take their Dimensions
and examine whether the whole be finished with due Symmetry and I'roportion.
I am very apt to suspect tliis Monarch to W- a (^)ueen and that her \isits to
each Cell only lend to dcpoMt her EfJKs there. When she makes her publick
Apjiearance ,'.11 the youn;; Hees who form her Court plant themselves in a
Circle round about her, clap their Wm^s, raise themselves on their fore I'ect,
and after several Leaps ami Curvets and other Kxpressions of their Joy, attemi
her throughout her I'rof^ress, at the Conclusion of which the (Jucen retires and
all the rest return to their Employment.

" In the Morning the Vounj; appear indolent, and are with i;reat Dirticulty
brought to apply themselves to their several Kimctions: in order to rouse them,
one of the most corpulent <.f their Hand, ex.actly .at half an Hour past .Seven',
erects his Mead and part of his liody <iut of a liox or Stand contrived for that
I'urpose ; there he claps his Win-s for the Space of a (Juarter of an Hour ami
with this Noise awakens all his I'eople. This summons them to work and is
the Drum to lieat the si-nal of their .March.

"There is likewise .in.ither who keejis Cuard all Day, and I have seen him
ac<|uit himself of his Commission with a Vij^ilance that astonished me. I have
sometimes thrown a common Hee int.. the Hive after I had plucked off one of
his Wins;s ; but he was instantly seized by the Centinel an<l laid dead on the
Spot.

"Four days .ago, our (^lueen set out very early in the Morning, an<l
proceeded, infirm and old as she was. with a trembling March to the Confmes of

"it'^lHb* -•'

LIFK-HISTORY OF BOMBL'S 49
Hoffer relates how his scepticism about the
existence of the so-called trumpeter was suddenly
dispelled by his discovering it at 3.30 a.m. in a very
populous nest of /,'. .;./.../.,.. variety ar,rillaceus,
he had set up in his window facing south-east.
Mornmg after morning the trumpeter arose about
th.s tmie and continued to hum for about an hour
He roused his w.le and children, and thcv. too, saw
and heard the trumpeter.

After the queen has laid altogether from 200 to
400 eggs that will develop into workers, the number
dependmg upon the species and the vigour of the
queen, she begins to lay others that are destined to
produce males and queens.

It is almost impossible to distinguish the male
brood from the worker brood, but the full-grown
queen larvre and the queen cocoons may be known
by the.r larger size. Sometimes the cocoons in each
cluster contam males only or queens only, but often
the two se.xes are mixed. As a rule, the earlier
batches produce chietly or on males, and the later
ones ch.etly or only queens. In some nests, how-
ever, all the eggs are female, not a single male being
produced. This happened in a strong colony of B
pratorum that I kept under observation until it died
out^ In other cases males only may be produced.

her I)„niinion>. I saw her Majoty drop d,mn hehin,l -> lir.l 1- •

.-if.er having languishM a short Time, she ex, r" Th L •."""'•■"^^•' ""''■

solahle on the C)ccasion. The Dun l,d n i ^ ''}" ^"■' ^""^ '"'-""•

tants Mnce that time has <laily ,liminNhe,l in.l ,h . """ '^^^ of the Inhabi-
•Juest of a new .Settlement." ""'"""'' •^"'' "'^'^ """■"'""ally ren,oving in

E

^^l

\lk J« -"T .>_ , -\,

50

THE HUMHLI'-HF.E

•i i

as I once noticed in a nest of />'. hrnshis. A few
males are often producetl with the; later Ijroods of
workers, especially if the queen is not prolific, but
workers are seldom produced with the malirs and
f]ueens, and such as do appear have; proljahly failed
to develop into queens through insufficient feeding.
I have never known a queen to be produced among
the regular batches of workers, but in some of my
nests that I fed liberally large workers like those
that are produced in the later broods were [produced
in the early broods. It seems, therefore, that an
abundant suj)ply of food is not sufficient to make a
female larva develop into a (jueen, but that it may
also be necessary for tht! larva to be from an egg
that has been laid late in the queen's life. Also the
possibility that the development of a queen instead
of a worker is the result of a slight differentiation in
the food given to the larva must not be precluded.
With the honey-bee, if the female larva is fed entirely
on "royal jelly," a rich milky food prepared in the
chyle stomach of the bee, it develops into a queen ;
but if it is weaned on the third day, and thereafter
has honey adtled to its food, it becomes a worker.
With the humble-bee, although no such differentia-
tion in feeding is observable, and the queen larva
appears to be fed like the worker larva on a gruel
of honey and pollen, prepared in the honey-sac, it is
not improbable that the composition of this food
is slightly altered, when the colony has reached a
certain stage, by, for instance, a greater activity in
some of the salivary glands, of which no less than

LIFE-HISTORV OF //^-J/y/^/^ 5,

four systems arc known to exist in the worker
noncy-bee.

Hie queen larv;e take Ion.crer to attain their full
s.^c than either the worker or the male hirva-. In a
cluster of cocoons containing? both males and queens
tlHt queens are on top and the males at the sides

On an average, takin.-,^ one nest with another it
may be estimated that nearly twice as many males
as queens are produced. The total number of males
and queens reared varies from ,00 to 500. according,
to the staff of workers.

In a laphfarius nest a stran.t,'e scene mav b.
witnessed at the layin.o; of the male and queen e...s
1 he workers, hitherto so amiable, are suddenly seized
w.th anger and jealousy, for as soon as the cuieen
has closed the cell and turned awav. one or two of
the,n hurriedly commence to bite it open, their win^s
qu.venng with excitement. The queen, however
seems to have expected this behaviour, and. .juicklv
returnmg to the cell, throws down th. conspirators'
repairs the cell, and again departs. Hut directiv her
l>ack ,s turned a worker again attacks the cell' and
agam the queen beats it off A„d so contiru.es a
game of attack and defence for f,ve or six hoL.rs
sometunes one worker, sometimes another, beine
the offender. At last the workers leave the cell
unmolested. That their obj.ct is to destroy the
c^ggs is proved by the fact that when sonu-times a
worker succeeds in reaching the eggs 1 have seen it
sei.e one and devour it with much relish. I„ this
way many eggs must be destroved. I hav- -,iso

^^:yr

m£i'

1 I

s^f J

5^

rni': iirMnU'-HKi'

seen the workers ot />'. /irrestris all.tck thi- luvvlaid
mail! and queen egi,'*;, l)ui in a uuich less «li urinim il
nianiK r.

The yo iijT males Ic ive the nest as soon as they
are ai)le to lly, and tlo not return attain for food or
shelter. Their life, thoiitfh iille, is hrief, and does
not last more than three or four \\e-t;ks. The; yonn^
(jueens may sometimes bt set-n retmnin^ t- > the n'st,
occasionally with pollen on their le'j^'s, bui they too
soon leave it for <;ood when they <^vt niatt-d, and
seek their winter cjuarters.

As the old (jue-en ages she j^adually loses her
hair. First, the jjjreater part of the abtlomen, and
then the inesonotiim, or central part of the thoni.x',
become more or less baKl. The queens of tcrrcstris
lose their hair more rapidly antl completely than
those of any other species that I have observed.

With advancing; age the quecm's prolificness f.dls
oft rapidly, and she is often scarcely able to lay
enough eggs to keep the workers fully emplo\etl ;
some of the latter then lay eggs which, however,
produce males only. .\ laying worker quickly loses
much of the hair on its abdomen, and by this means
may otten be discovered. Some species, particu-
larly lapiiiariiis and tcrrcstris, are more liable to
develop kiying workers than others, and in a normal
nest oi tcrrcstris, even while the (jueen is still pro-
lific, eggs may often be found in the undersized
workers with malformed winu;s that never leave
the nest ; but I believe that these eggs are _,eldom
developed and laid. Although I once caught a

*:i _

II

^n-K-IIISTORN- oj.- /iih]//{(s

5;>

work.T an<I mal.- ..f /,'. „.ronu>, i„ r„,.uIation. thrn-
's a.npl,. (:vidr„cc i„ simw that .hr laying, work.-rs
••"-.• v.r^nns. an<I this <,.x,,I,.ins why thry ,.n.,|„n.
'"■•'I's „„ly. th.. iMrthrno-.nrtu: |,r„.hKtion <.f thr
<ln.nr Immh- a w.ll known ph«MKMncn.,n in the- cas,-
of thr hon(;y-l)(-«;.

n,- ..^r^rs „(• th<. work.Ts an- as lan^*- as thosr „f
th'.- qu.-n ; ryru th,,- liny w.rk.Ts lav h.ll-siz.-.I .-.rs
althon.^rh th.y cannot .l.-v.-lop „„„-, than un^ .[■
l"«' at a time. S.-v.-ral work.Ts will lay th<-ir v^^s
;" th.. san,c c.ll. and whil,.- ,h,.y arc- ovipositing^ ih.-n-
's a ^u-,a deal of rivalry and c,uarr..liinj,' lH-tw,rn
tli':rn. M.,t unlc-ss th.- cjuccn is nnprolilic. or dirs
early, the w.,rkers pro.luct' very f.^w offsprin^r. jnch-cd
III many n.-sts they pr.nluce non.-.

Th,.- stor.- of honey in the cocons is generally at
us .greatest soon aiur the yonn^ c,,u.,.„s hc-^^in t..
em.M ..-. In a favourable season a populous colony
may have all the vacated cocoons, a.nountin^' to ov.-r
400. hlled with thick honey and s.-aled over with

The lar^r^st colonies ar.t made I,y lapUariu.
icrrcstns, and Inconun. On July 24. .s,,^. I took
a nest of hpidanus containing 245 workers. On
J^'ly '4. fQii, I took a Urn-.tris nest with -,
workers. In hoth th.-se ru-sts w..rkers wer.- still
emergin^r from their cocoons, and the r,ld,-st workers
had dxxl. I have also taken v.^y stn.n.; n.-sts ..f
hio -nu. and I think that the mmiber of work.-rs in
a n- St ..fany of th.^se species must sometimes r.-ach
:,'-^. I he colonies r.f the carder-bees, on th,.- oth.-r

M^«^

54

Tin- nuMiJLi:-n?:H

1 1

?

haml, an; not nearly so populous. l)ut I have takni
nests ol eaih of the species containiiijj; over lOc)
workers. Many colonies, however, fail to i^row
large throui;ii parasites, IkuI weather, and various
other misfortun<s ; thus in some nests of the prolific
underground sp<Ties the population never exceeds
icx), and in some nests of the carder-bees it never
exceeds 50.

When most of the young queens have emerged
the number of workers diminishes rapidly, and is
soon reduced to a few dozen of the youngest and
strongest. These drop off one by one. I'lowers
grow scarce, the work«;rs become idle and listless,
and the store of honey that only two or three weeks
previously filled so many cells is quickly consumed.
The comb grows mouldy, and the old queen dies.
And so decay and death overtake the once busy
community.

In the case oi Ji. /'ratoniiu, and probably of the
other species whose colonies end their existence in
the height of summer, the aged queen often spends
the evening of her life very pleasantly with her little
band of worn-out workers. They sit together on
two or three cells on the top of the ruined edifice,
and make no attempt to rear any more brood. The
exhausting work of bearing done, the queen's body
shrinks to its original size, and she becomes quite
active and youthful-looking again. This well-earned
rest lasts for about a week, and death, when at last
it comes, brings with it no discomfort. One night,
a little cooler than usual, finding her food supply

^jr:;cwi

IJITMIISTOKY f)F nOA//}(S 55
exhausted, thr , iu.cn .i-rows torpiM, as sh,- has cl.»n.-
many a time- lu-forc in th.. early part of her career ;
Init on this occasion, her Hf.r.vvork finished, there is
no awak<;iiinjf.

I hiis the h-t.>history of the queen humhle-bee is
complet.:.!. It only remains to ciescrihe a sh-!u. but
ru:v,Tthele.ss very interesting modification of it that
sometimes takes place.

Many of the later appearin^r queens of /i. iaf^uia-
rins and tcrrcsfris. two of the most abundant species
"1 l-.n,L,rIand. do not take th,- trouble to start nests of
tlicir own. but fnulinK' a nest already occupied by a
qu<M-n of their own species attach themselves to it.
I he foundress of the nest at first i,L,'nores the stranger
who takes car... to keep out of her way as much as
possible. After a short while, however, the intrud.-r
grows bolder, and begins to pay cl(,se attention to
the brood. Jealousy then arises, and a mortal duel
IS the result. The two queens seize and endeavour
to sting one anoth.r in the most ferocious and
desperate manner, roiling over, locked in a deadly
embrace. One of them succeeds, usually within a
few seconds, in piercing the other, the sting in most
cases penetrating between two of the segments of
the abdomen. Instantly the sting of the" wounded
queen becomes paralysed, and she relaxes her
grip of the victor. Then she grows cold and
lethargic, and sometimes at once, sometimes an
hour or two later, she dies. The foundress is gen-
erally the conqueror, as she deserves to be, but this

%

«

56

THF HUMBLE-BEE

u

: J

13

II

li

||

! I

1^

is only because she fights with .m cater energy and
boldness than her adversary, i.. combatant that
shows fear, hesitation, or we-'l-ntss being almost
always defeated. Consequently, if the foundress has
become enfeebled, or has been taken by surprise by
the interloper, she is very likely to lose her life. The
contest decided, the victor pays no further attention
to her vanquished antagonist, and, with an air of
relief and satisfaction, goes and cherishes the brood
with the greatest affection.

In seasons when iapidarius or tcrrestris queens
are abundant, several of these duels may be fought
Ml a single nest, and in digging up nests in an early
stage I have often found the dead bodies of the
queens. They lie under the nest or near it, in the
cavity or tunnel. I once dug up a nest of ternstris
containing the remains of no less than twenty
queens : the tunnel was short with a conspicuous
entrance. On May 27, 191 i, 1 found two dead
tcrfcstris queens in a nest with a short tunnel, the
mouth of which was small and completely hidden
under grass, which sliows that the queens often hnd
the nests by scent.

I think that the queens of the carder-bees seldom
enter one another's nests and kill one another ;
but that they may do so sometimes was proved by
my fmc'ing a dead dcrhawcllui: queen, as well as the
ntigning one. in a dcrhamcllns nest on June 3, 191 i,
this species being particularly plentiful that season.

It may be asked, What causes the queens to fight }
Investigations that I have made point to the con-

LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS se-
clusion that the orijrinal queen tolerates the intruder
only so long as the latter has no e--s to lay, the
two mothers i)einjr unable to endure one another's
|)resence.

Each queen that attaches herself to the nest of
another means one less colony started, and it is
hard to see of what advantai^e this habit can be to
the species except the survival of the best fighters.
One would suppose that the attachn.ent of one or
more queens to a nest might be a safeguard against
the perishing of the young, should their mother get
lost, but my observations show that the satellite is
not sufficiently settled in life to assume the care of
the brood until she is about to lay eggs. It is. in
fact, the imminence of motherhood that makes her
Icok after the brood, although success in a duel
rouses her to do so.

I have di.scovered one very interesting excc-ption
to the rule that only the (jueens of the same species
prey upon one anotht.T.

On June 15. 1.S94, I found a nest containing a
tcrnstris queen with ten workers, all of which wen-
of the clo.sely allied species Ituontm. and a dead
huoyuni queen, evidently the mother of the work.Ts.
On th(,- same day I found another nest conlai:n'ng
about twenty workers, all lucoru,,,. with a Icnr^tns
queen and the decaying remains cf two liicorum
queens. These, and several similar cas<;s met with
"1 lat.T years, leave no doubt that the Icnr.slri.
queens fretpiently entt-r the Imon,,,! ne-,ts, kill ih<-
/uconim (pur^ns, and gei the Iiuorum workers to

^8

THE HUMBLE-BEE

rear their young. Lticonau is milder tempered and
less vigilant than tcfrcstris, and one can well imagine
that in a contest between a tcrnstris and a iiiconini
the tcrrcs/ris would be victorious.'

' Sci- inv ailiili- in the Kiito'in/^-i^'hJ'i MoiilhSy .IA;^,/;/«, I. ,r iSqii, ji, ly^.

't i

5 1
i

! 3

I 3

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in

PSJTHVRUS. THI-: USL'RPER-BF.K

The most interesting and. in my experience, the
deadliest enemies to which several of the commonest
species of humble-bees are liable to fall a prey art'
bees so closely resembling the true humble-bees
themselves that only a student can tell the differ-
ence between them. These bees were first recog-
nised to be distinct from the ordinarv humble-bees
in 1S02 by Kirby, who noticed among other differ-
ences that the females lacked the pollen-collecting
apparatus on the hind legs,' and thirty years later
Lepeletier gave thtMii the name lA J'sif/iyrns.

b'ach species of Psilliynis breeds only in the
nests of its own particular species of Ihvii/ms. The
P<ithyri produce no workers, and so;iie of the (;arly
obs(;rvers who saw them in the nests of thi; Bonibi,
noticing that they appeared to live in perfect
harmony with their hosts, suggested that they
might render them some important service. Hut
it was soon discovered that tlu-ir association with
the Boiiibi wis to the disadvantage of the latter, ami
they came to be regarded as commensals \\\\\\\s

o

' .!/c'^- '.irhi.i A'lf'i ltt^:i.r. \>i. 1. ||.. jc'i. 2U).

%i

6o

THH HUMBLi:-I5HE

til

m

U|ioii the bounty of tlic Hoiiibi. Hiis view was
iiplK'ld hy Hotfcr, who. i:i 1SS9, |)iil)Iish(>(l a moiio-
,L,'ra[)h on the Psithyrf in which hr rtxonkiil oh-
scrvatioiis ol his own in Styria snpportnjf it. Hut
my observations have shown that at l<;ast \.\su of
the; species ot J'sit/iynis are deadly parasites upon
the; species of Jiombits in whose nests they !)reeii.
In the years iS(,i to 1S94 I ilu^; up many nests
ot lyoiiihiis hipidarnts containinj.,^ its parasite
J'sithynti nt/>fs/n->. and of J>. /cncsfrii containing
its parasite /'s. irsi'a/i<. and I noticed that in every
case the Psithyru.s female had taken the place of
ihi; mother of the C(.)|ony, whose remains I gener-
ally lound lying under or near the nest. Investiga-
tion showed that it is tlu; practice of th(; /'sif/iyrus
female to enter the nest of the J>oni/nts, to sting
the (jueen to death, antl then toget the poor workers
to rear her young instead of their own brothers
and sisters.-

The wa\- in whiih the Psithynts queen procee is
in ordt r ii> ensure the success of her atrocious work
has ail the api)t_-arancc of a cunning plan, cleve-rly
conc<Mved and cirried out by one who not only is
.1 mistress ot the crime of murder, but also kiunvs
liow to commit it at th(' most advantageous time
Inr herself aM iier future children, compelling the

" Ai; .trlinc ; Hit u',- hi. I, .IV .

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/' "/.'(/.'. .(/, .■'/. Ill l.SiiJ >, ,- .li.

I^'M. :.;'<: .1:, i .'/, .,,,.' - ;./ .,

' ..I'i'. lr\ 1;. ||,,||,.I l( il.l/, \.,t. \',T.I,

/' riiMii . h, !(■ ili'-i lilKii »:is i;ivrn in iny
!:<'iir., '',. . /' /.,/,//,.;,,;■ ,,,!,/ If-,:' /,.
■ /•';.■,'■ ,7' .\a::iuui,:. I iMyl ,n, , ,| \|,iy

.'.■/.■■.■•/■ /.;;/'; '; /..;/,•/. 1 1) I ,. >.liin,|,i,,

... J'SITHYRCS, THE USURPKR-HEE 6.

poor orphans she creates to become her willing;
slaves.

The following; are the details of the life-history
of Psithyrus ntpcstris and Ps. icstalis as I ha\(r
observed them :■ —

The queens hibernate solitarily in the ground
like the /untbiis (jiieens, but they do not (juit tiicir
winter cjuarters until after the J>oiii!>!ts fjueens have
emerged, and most of them are already engaged in
rearing their first batch of workers.

Psi//iynis rupcstris much resembles h(-r victim,
the hif'idayius (luecii, in appearance, being about
the same si/e, ami, like her, h.iving a black coat
with a red tail ; but her wings are tlark brown, not
clearly tr.uisparent as in lapidarins, and \\vx I'ight
is fee-ble, producing a lower note than that (jf the
lapidayiui queen, the rate of wing vibration being
slower. Ps. irstalis also ratht-r resemijlcs li< r
victim, /)'. hrirs/ris, in her yellow band and whitish
I. ill. but is likewise distinguishable by her smtjky
wings and soft low-sounding flight.

Hut the most remarkable feature .ibout the-
l'>itli\nis ({ueens is their e.xceedingly thick and
hard skin, covering them like a coat of mail and
jirotecting th(-m from the stings rif the //<;;;//'/. '1 he
segments of the .ii)d()inen, in i^articular, are \(rv
hard and lap tight!)- and closely o\-(;r (Hie another,
there being no wa.x-yicldiug membrane betucen
the dorsal segments, so that it is very difticull tor
M\ ad\-ersary to torci- her sling between thcni,
1 lieir coals .ire thin, [n-rhaps as a compeiiMalicjn

'1

i

^fK »*

62

THE HUMBLE-nEE

III

i

I

ii
* 1

for the extra thick skin, many thick-hided animals
lacking hair. Their stings are stouter and more
curved than those of Jiombus : it is interesting to
note that the sting in the queen honey-bee. who
also uses it for killing queens, is curved, while in
th<,- worker honey-bee the sting is straight.

The movements of the /'si///yn/s, whether flying
or walking, are lethargic and awkward. When
visiting the llowers in search of food she does not
travel systematically from blossom to blossom like
an industrious humble-bee. but settling upon a
bloom she sips lazily sufficient nectar to .satisfy her
immediate need, and afterwards is very likely to
become drowsy. Fatigued by the exertion of
obtaining food for h-rself, she is plainly incapable
of the sustained effort that wt)uld be needed had
she to provide for the wants of her young.

Whenever the weather is pleasant she searches
leisurely for a nest of the particular species of
Aow/v/.v which it is her instinct to victimise. In
this work she is guided, like a dog, largely by
scent. In May 1S95 I caught a searching queen
of /'s. :r.s/a/!s and put her into a glass jar in which
I had kept some (iue(;ns of its host, A. fcnrsh-is,
for several hours, so that th.,- jar had ac(|uired the
characteristic odour of this bee. The /'si^/iynis
queen ran about inside the jar in great excite-
ment, waving her ant<;nna' and stroking the in-
terior of the j.ir with them, apparently "Irving to
trace the path the <pie.-ns had taken. After a ivss
minutes' hunt.ng slie Hew out of the jar, but fmding

I

... PS/rilVRrS, THF USURI'KR-MEE 63

she had lost the scent she returned at once to search
again inside.

The Psilltynis is much more hkely to find a
nest if the tunnel leadin<,r to it is short than if it
is h)ng. Most of the nests containing Psitlixii
that I have dug up had tunnels not excectling
hfteen inches in length, and in none wen; they ov(;r
two feet. It is probably to escape the /'si(/ivn,s
that hf>idaniis and /crnstris nests oft(.-n ha\ e
longer tunnels than those of any other species.

In her wanderings the Psithyriis may find and
enter the nest of some other sj.ecies of Jnmilnt.^.
Having succeeded in making herself acceptabl.- to
the inhabitants, she becomes a temporary l-xlgrr
in this nest, making it her heaiKpiarters and re-
turning to it for meals and also to pass the night.
1 once found a Ps. n,/>t,/,is (lue.Mi Icxlging in a w.;ik
nest of n. aoronim in the thatch i.f ;t cow-hni-.; ;
another rnpcs/ns was a frcqiKtin \ isitcjr in a m-st
of/;. ih-vliiV)iii:its 1 h.ui under observation in Inn.-
H<io. where she was siipp,,rted by the (iu..-.ii .,iilv.
no workers having \t:t emerged. I ImuikI t J.,
ris/a/zs lodgin- with a //. ut riuun, !i:t< <
June .), i(;i(). ( )n jniie 10, I h)u,-A ,, /'
in ! nest 01 //. pji!:,n(>ii \\\\\\ ;,!;,. ,,!,
Seven werker.^ ; anl mu |ii!\ , 1 lii.cc.-p
:^ilillt> \\\ ,1 nest Ml /,' f'l- ,!:.ri(i., i<,nt,i:!
que-ii ,.!ui twent> work^r-^. 1 h,i\. i;, \ --r \.niu,\
I Pyifiivni^ lodging in a [iMpuii ,11-, p,,.,;,

i iv iiMjurity ot the /' !//;^ni. .j-.,-,.,,^ di.i.MV--
iH" ncNtN iii their \ii tinis u hen ,,;,; v t! - :ir:,tiMti;i

'■'I! (.>n
:, ■/<///..

;. /'
• ^ ti,.

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64

THK HUMnLIMUn-

Ml

II

If

ol workers h.is cint:rg(,'il, and this is the most
tavourable lime, for thcst- rarly workers are less
hostile to strange queens than are the workers that
enierije later. 1 1" the J'si/hyrus fails to fnul the nest
until the workers have become numerous they set
upon her with j;reat fury, and, after some lime, j^cner-
ally succeed in killinj; her by stinijing her in a
vulnerable spot, as for instance in the neck. ( )n
Jime 20, 1S94, I took a nest of /> tcrrcstm in
an unusually forward stage for this ilate, there
being 50 workers, 6 males, 2 young (|ueens, ami a
(lu. unity of male and ipK-en cocoons. In the hole
were two ilead Psitliynts vest alii females, both
perfectly denuded of hair, aiul 15 deail tcncstris
workers. Hvidt;ntly the J\<it/i\ri had been killed,
but only after seven; fighting and heavy loss. Again,
on July 14, 191 I, 1 found the dead body of a Ps.
:cs/a/is, also absolutely hairless, lying in the grass
at the mouth of the tunnel of a strong /irns/ns
r :st . the workt;rs must h.ivekilletl her and drag<red
her to the surface.

It is, therefore, neces.sary for the Psitliynis to fmd
the nest before many workers are out, but it wtnild
not be to her advantage to kill the (jueen until the
latter has laid the greater number of the worki-r
eggs ; and, as a matter of fact, she does not do so.

1 lie Jhviibiis queen, on first meeting tlu-
PsU/ivriis in her nest, shows a certain amount
of agitation, and m.iy .idvance to att.ick her. but,
her cour.ige failing, she dr.iws bat k. The /\s!//i\ /us.
hwwcver, treats the ([ueen with gootl-natured in-

Ill

/w/y/r/vv;v. thi.: usuki>Ek-nEE 65

^lifferr-ncc. unless the- latter U-comes clisa^reoablv
a|:Krcss.v.. and the., all she does is to lift c;ccasio.'
ally a warni.,^ le^. or to creep away a„cl hide
herself hke a coward in the nest material. If ,he
workers attack her. she tries to rub then, o,f with
h^T l«-gs. and slips into a crevice between the
clusters of cocoons, or into the nest material but
protected by her coat of n,ail. she has little
cause to lear jijettinj^ stiinjr.

.Although the Psuhyrus during the f.rst few davs
«hes occas.onally to an.l from the nest. I have seen
"o cndence that she brings hon,e any food, cr that
she helps n, any way to rear the Jio.ulu,. brood.
' er hrst care is to ingratiate herself with the
'"'^ab.tants. and i„ this she succeeds .so well that
he workers soon c.-ase to show any hostilit^•
owards her. H.en the ,ueen grows Customed
o the pre.sence of the stranger, and her alarm
^I'sappears. but it is .succeeded by a kind o. de-
spondency. Her interest .uul pleasure in her brood
-cm less and so depressed is she that one can
fancy she has a presentiment of the fate that awaits
her. It ,s by no means a cheerful fan.lv, and the
J,'Ioom of ,mpendu,g disaster .seems to hang over it

ut wh.Ie the .jueen grows n,ore dejected, the
J^t/,yrus grows nu.n- lively, and takes an increasing
-nterest .n the comb, crawling .about over it .i h
-'--';■' -'lacrity. and examining it minutely

'■; J-e .ooS I had a good opportunitv of

<•< -y nests o, /.■. ,,puanus that 1 had placed in

ijl

66

THK HL'MHLIMU'K

til

1

a box lor observation. A'n/>is/fis (|injcns were
particularly plentiful that season, ami on*- was
first seen in the hpiiiariiis nest when only ei^ht
workers hail emerj^ed. The next day when I
looked into the box this lupcstrii was out, l)Ul on
the following day I was surpriscil to see two
rupcslrifi on the comb, apparently living on good
terms with the lapidarius (pieen ami her children.
After this I inspected the box at least twice «'very
day. On the lirst few occasions there were some-
times two ni/>ishis females, and once three, to be
seen in the nest, but after two or thri-e days only
one remained, ami sh(; was always at home. The
poor lapiiiariiis (pieeii was visibly depressed and
ill at ease in the dominating presence of the
/'si//iynts. .\s time went on she (jrew nervous
anil languid, and showed increasing fear anil
suspicion of th< unwelcome guest. I'inally, at
I 1.30 A.M. on the tenth day after the first ajjpear-
ance of a Psit//yrus in the nest. I found the ipieen
and three workers lying dead outside the nest, and
the I'sii/iynis on the comb displaying more activity
and satisfaction than usual. Evidently the- three
workers had sacrificed their lives in a futile attempt
to destroy their mother's murderess. The next day
the Psitliyrns laid some eggs.

Here we have evidence for supposing that the
death of the queen is brought about by the develop-
ment of eggs in the Psitliynif causing ji^alousy
and a duel, the two ijueiMis, as in the case of
rival IniDtbui queens, being unable to tolerate one

"' /''VZ/y/JAV-.V. Tlir: USUKPHR-HT-E 6;
anoth.T-s presence- when they have e^gs to lay.
Uh.:tl.cr the jealousy is mutual, whe-ther the
IsUhyrus IS the agj^ressor. or whether the JhmUun
queen compasMs her own destruction l,y lirst
attackn.j,^ th.- I\utl,ynis, it is impossible to say In
the above case. „niy three hours before I ch-scovered
that the (I.ath of the ciu.-en had occurred. I looked
'"to the nest and saw both queens on the comb, and
th-re was nothin- in their behaviour towards one
-'»<'tli«-T to indicate the approaching traj^^edy. On
tHe whole. I think it probable that the liomLus queen
starts the hght as soon as she discovers that the
Psithyrus IS about to l.,y. an unpardonable fault in a
member of her household at this early sta,i;e

I believe that a Pstlhyrus queen never conunences
layng as soon as she enters the nest of her host and
that e-g-production is the result of living in luxury
^" the nest for some days. Indeed, there is everv
reas,)n to st.ppcse that if the colony when discovered
by the Psithyrus is in too early a stage, or too
ftrugglmg a condition, the development of e-^gs
Ml the Psithyrus, and. consequently, the murder^,f
the hombus, are delayed until the requisite degree
oi prosperity is reached.

The poor Pomlms queen appears to have no
chance of victory over the weli-..rmed PsUhyrus
have taken a great many nests of lapUanns and
tcrrc^tns m all stages, but have seen no evidence
to show that the Pombus queen ever succeeds in kill-
'HK^ the P.i(l,yrus. or that she ever escapes bein-.
destroyed by the latter. Here, however, my

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68

THE HUMBLE-BEE

I I

observations are opposed to those of Hoffer, who
found the Psithyrus queen and the Bombus queen
hving in the nest on good terms with one another,
and both of them producing young males and queens.
But Hoffer's observations were made chiefly on two
species of Psithyrus which I have not been able to
study, namely, Ps. catnpesiris, which breeds in the
nests of B. agroruni and B. helferanus, and Ps.
quadricolor, which preys on B.pratorum. Evidently
these species of Bombus, which, it may be noted, are
milder tempered than B. lapidarius and terrestris, do
not object, in Styria at least, to the Psithyri laying
their eggs in their nests. Of course, the Psithyri,
in these cases, do not rear so large a family.

I believe the Psithyrus queens do not kill one
another, for I have never found a dead Psithyrus in
a nest ruled by a Psithyrus. If several Psithyri find
the same nest only one remains, although the others
may make it their headquarters for a few days, as
noticed in the above-mentioned nest of B. lapi-
darius.

As might be supposed, the Psithyrus is at first
very prolific, but she ages and fails more quickly
than a Bombus queen.

The eggs of Ps. rupestris are slightly longer, but
much more slender, than those of B. lapidarius,
being four times as long as they are thick : the eggs
of Ps. vestalis are also slenderer than those of
B. terrcstris.

The development of Psithyrus through the larval
and pupal stages is the same as that of Bombus, but

... PS/THVRUS, THE USURPER-BEE 69
the cocoons of all the species that I have observed
{rupestris, vestalis, distinctus, and barbutcllus) differ
from those of their Bombus hosts in that they
quickly lose their fresh lemon tint, and become of a
dull ochreous colour, and later turn semi-transparent,
crackling when they are dented— qualities that are
possessed in only a very slight degree by the
Bombtis cocoons. The cocoons of Ps. rupestris
form compact clusters like those of its host B.
hpiciarius, while those of Ps, vestalis, like those
of B. ierrestris, are only loosely attached to one
another.

The Psithyrus kills the Bombus queen before
she has laid the full number of worker eggs, con-
sequently nests containing Psithyri are not very
populous, the number of workers seldom exceeding
eighty. In nests of B. lapidarius containing Ps.
rupestris I have never known a lapidarius queen
to be reared ; similarly in nests of B. terrestris
attacked by Ps. vestalis I have never seen a young
terrestris queen.

In a Psithyrus-x\M^i\ nest a large number of the
workers become fertile. In digging out a nest of
B. terrestris, I can generally tell before reaching
the nest that it has been victimised by Ps. vestalis Tf
many workers containing eggs, known by their
shining black abdomens with the yellow band on
the second segment more or less obliterated, rush
out of the hole to greet me. But it is a remarkable
fact that as long as the Psithyrus queen reigns in
the nest I have not known a Bombus male to be

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70

THE HUMBLE-BEE

III

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produced, although in a nest containing Ps. vestalis
I have seen the terrestris workers lay their eggs.
In this same nest, however, I saw the Psithynis
queen calmly eating the workers' eggs, and I think
that this is probably the way in which she always
disposes of them.

The Psithyrus queen pays close attention to her
new-laid eggs for several hours, giving the workers
no chance to molest them, but the workers soon get
reconciled to them, and henceforth they feed and
tend the Psithyrus brood with as much devotion ai.
if it were of their own species : indeed, they seem
sometimes to show a greater fondness for it. Hoffer
found that the larvae of Psithyrus campestris died
in a case where the Psithyrus queen disappeared
while they were still very young, and concluded
that the Psithyrus contributes something essential
to the nourishment of her larvae when they are
young. I have seen a queen of Ps. distinctus, a
species closely allied to Ps. vestalis, feeding her
young larvae ; but some later larvae of this queen
developed into fair-sized queens, although I removed
her when ihey were very small, namely, twenty-five
days before the queens emerged.

The hard, convex, narrow and naked underside
of the abdomen of the Psithyrus queen is unsuited
for incubating, and I have never seen her spreading
herself over the brood.

On July 14, 191 1, I took a nest of B. hortortim
containing itr parasite Psithyrus barbutellus. There
weie 49 hortorum workers, many with shiny

^^m :^EMLL^^^^^M

t^sm:^)f^m.

m PSITHYRUS. THE USURPER-BEE 71

abdomens, 16 young barbutellus queens, 2 small
barbutellus males, and the body of the old barbutellus
queen. The brood consisted of 38 Psithyrus cocoons
containing pupcX-, chiefly queens, and a cluster of 5
hortonivi cocoons containing younger pupce, all of
which developed into males, besides a few larva; and
eggs. Probably therefore Ps. barbutellus is parasitic
in the same deadly way as Ps. rupestris and vestalis.
There is a greater or less tendency in all the
species of Psithyrus to resemble their particular
hosts in the pattern and colour of their coat. It can
hardly be doubted that this is of some advantage
to the Psithyrus.

Tne origin of Psithyrus, more especially of its
peculiar parasitical instincts, is an interesting question.
If a specimen o{ Psithyrus be compared with a speci-
men oi Bombus it is seen that the resemblance is
not merely superficial but extends to nearly all ihe
important details of structure, so that it is impossible
to avoid the conclusion that Psithyrus has sprung
from Bombus, and this at quite a recent period in the
history of life. Moreover, the Bombi—Sind this is
particularly interesting— show parasitical tendencies
leading to the parasitism of Psithyrus. We have
seen (pages 55-58) how the Bombus queens may
enter the nests of their own species and kill one
another, and how, in the case of the twin species, B.
Irrcstris and lucortim, tcrrcstris has extended this
habit so as to prey on luc^vHm, killing the lucorum
queen and getting the lucorum workers to rear her
young in practically the same manner as the Psithyri

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THE hUMRLE-BEE

63*'

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prey on the Bo>//h\ It is a remarkable fact that
the sting of the terrestris queen differs from that
of the lucorum queen and approaches that of
Psithyrus in being somewhat stouter and more
curved, and having its thickened basal portion more
parallel-sided when viewed sideways than in lucorum.
There is, however, no evidence to show that any
species o{ Psithyrus has sprung from the particular
species of Bovibiis on which it preys, such resem-
blances as it may show to it in coat-colour, etc.,
being pretty clearly attributable to mimicry or
exposure to the same conditions of life, and not to
ancestry.

The males of the Psithyri are very fond of
drowsing on flowers, especially on the heads of the
knap-weed ; they are even more fragrant than the
males of the Bombi. In their play, which is probably
amorous, they hover over meadows and grassy
slopes. I know two exposed grassy inclines, both
facing north-west and having no trees near, where,
every August, the males of Ps. rupcstris may be
seen flying about, skimming the grass, sometimes in
considerable numbers. I have seen the males of
Ps. barbuielliis hovering over the grass in the same
way in July, but in the vicinity of trees.

I have dug up the hibernating queens of Ps.
rupcstris. vcstalis, barbuic/lus, and campestris from
banks facing north-west, occupying little cavities in
the ground, about two inches below the surface,
exactly like the queens of B. hpidarius and other
Bombi.

"^"T^ii5!t,:^#a5;s4'^

IV

PARASITES AND ENEMIES OF THE
HUMBLE-BEE

Many kinds of small animals, chiefly insects, are to
be found in humble-bees' nests. Some of these are
chance visitors, with no particular business there,
but others are dependent in some way upon the
humble-bees, and several belonging to this class are
very mju-ious to them, devouring the larva; and
pupai.

Of the latter kind one of the most destructive is
the caterpillar of the humble-bee wax-moth {Aphomia
sociella). It feeds upon the brood of the humble-
bee and probably everything else that can be eaten
in the nest. The full-sized caterpillars are i in. to
1 1 m. long, pale olive-green above and yellow
beneath, with the head and first segment orange-
brown above. They weave a loose web about
themselves into which they can retreat, safe from
molestation by the humble-bees. They are very
active and can run backwards as well as forwards
A hundred of these caterpillars-a nest infested with
them seldom contains fewer, sometimes many more—

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74

THE HUMBLE-BEE

IV

will completely destroy a large comb in a few days,
riddling it with their silk-lined tunnels and reducing
it to an impenetrable, sponge-like mass of web and
debris. Upon this lump the humble-bees, deprived
of all their cells and brood, sit listlessly, unable to
help themselves. The caterpillars, when they are
full fed, creep out of the nest in a body and spin
their long tough cocoons, laying them side by side
in a bunch. The cocoons form a dirty white ball

lM<;. 15.-1, Citerpillar of A/'ltomia SMidla ; 2, Larv.i of Br.ichycoma delta ;
2:. rii|Mriiini of ditto ; 3.3, \^\xsx of I'oliicdla bombyUm ; 4, Larva of
I'r.iini,:. All natural size.

which might easily be mistaken for a lump of rubbish.
Here the caterpillars pass the winter, changing to
pupce in May. The moths, which emerge in June,
are dingy white, with brown markings and with the
anterior wings tinged in front with green, which
soon rubs off. B. dcrhainelliis, one of the surface-
dwelling species that generally makes its nest earlier
than the others, is very apt to fall a prey to wax-
moth caterpillars. I have also found them in the
nests of /). tcrrcstris, B. hortorum, and other under-
ground dwellers, but I have never seen them in

gflr^1l?m™slm^^

PARASITES Ax\D ENEMIES 75

nests of B. lapidayius. When the infested nest is
under the ground the full-fed caterpillars often spin
a web to the mouth of the tunnel and. climbing up
by this, spin their cocoons on the surface undt-r a
stone or other protection.

Another insect that devours the brood is the
larva of Brachycoma devia, a two-winged fly. This
riy much resembles the common house-fly, but it
belongs to a different family, the Tac/iinincc, many
of the species of which, in their larval stage, are
parasitic in the bodies of various insects. 'The
larva of Brachycoma is of the shape usual in fly
maggots, namely, tapering to a point at the mouth
and truncated at the tail. It is white and trans-
lucent and bears no spines. Large specimens
attam a length of f inch. Only about a dozen of
these maggots are usually found in a nest at a time
but occasionally th- - are more, and I have seen the
brood in a nest r J. pratorum completely eaten up
by them. In th. not summer of 191 1 the maggots
were seen in most of my outdoor nests. In a strong
nest oiterrestris that I dug up. several of the queen
cocoons had a soft watery appearance and were
found when opened to contain the maggots ; there
were two, sometimes three, nearly full-sized maggots
m each cocoon with the shrivelled remains of the
Bombus larva, but there were no holes in the cocoons
so that the maggots must have allowed themselves
to be imprisoned with the Bovibus larva when it was
spmning. I have seen the cocoons of B. mnscorum
similarly occupied by the maggots, and find that it

"Ws*'

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THE HUMBLE-BEE

IV

IS not alwiiys the larVcX- in the largest cocoons that
art; victimised. The maggots usually creep into the
nest material to pupate: the puparium is at first
yellowish -brown, afterwards it becomes dark red.
The perfect flies emerge in two or three weeks ;
they may be easily obtained by placing the pup:e in
a glass jar and covering it with muslin.

A very interesting dependant on the humble-bee
is the large (ly. Volncclla bombylam. This hand-
some insect is about the size of a worker humble-
bee and superficially resembles it closely, being of
a stout build and covered with long hair which in
some specimens is red at the tail and black over the
rest of the body in imitation of B. lapidarius and
B. derhamcllus, and in others is white at the tail
and marked with yellow on the thorax and base of
the abdomen in imitation of the white-tailed, yellow-
banded species, particularly B. jonellns and B.
hortorum. Both forms occur plentifully in most
districts and have, I believe, been bred from the
same parent. But the mimicry of Volucella does
not end here. It is very fond of sunning itself upon
flowers frequented by humble-bees, such as the heads
of the greater knap-weed {Centaurca scabiosa), and
if a specimen be grasped in the fingers it makes a
buzzing noise so exactly like a humble-bee that the
fear of getting stung makes one feel inclined to drop
it instardy. Moreover, these flies hover about over
grassy banks, etc., in the same manner as a Boinbus,
searching for humble-bees' nests in which to lay
their eggs, and at a distance I have often mistaken

lil^i^fl5«4^f Mj Mn

PARASITES AND ENEMIFS ^j

one for a humble-bee. It is a singular fact that if
one kills a female /Wm//<. she at once commences
to lay eggs, and so great is the vitality of the ovi-
positing apparatus that on one occasion I fount!
about a dozen eggs had been laid l,y a female in my
cyanide killing-bottle. No doubt if the> are stung
to death by the humble-bees in their nests they are
always able to finish laying their eggs. The eggs
are large and hard, and when new laid, like those
of many insects, are thinly coated with a glutinous
substance, which quickly hardens and fastens them
to one another and to the object upon which they
are laid. The larva,- are of a dirty yellowish-white
colour and slightly flattened, and have a tough
wrinkled skin ; they have six long spines arranged
in a semicircle under the anus, and also two rows of
rudimentary spines running the whole length of the
body on either side. They attain the large size of
J m. to l in. in length and ] in. in width. They
live in the debris under the comb and are said to be
scavengers ; they certainly have done no harm to
the brood in my nests.

The larvae of another kind of f]y, Fan,ini, are
often found on the earth in the nest cavity. They
are considerably smaller than the Volucelia larva; ;
their colour is dirty brown, and they have two
rows of spines running the whole length of the
body on either side and two more rows closer
together along the top; at the anal end the
spines are longer. These are also scavengers and
feed upon excrement. The perfect fly is dull

if

78

THE HUMBLIMU-E

colcjurcd ami bears some slight resemblance to a
!i()Use-Hy.

Amont,' the smaller and !ess important inhabitants
of humble-bees' nests are beetles b'jlonj^'ing to the
genus Antlicrophai^ns. A. nii^ricornis is yellowish-
brown, about {\ in. long and ,',; in. wide.' Little
flies with beautiful irridescent wings are sometimes
to be seen running rapidly over the comb, the
ff-males with their bodies enormously distended :
these are examples of Phora vitripcnnis. Possibly
their larv;e consume the humble-bees' eggs.

The larva of the tly Conops lives inside the body
of the larva and pupa of the humble-bee, the perfect
fly emerging from the adult humble-bee sometimes
after the latter has been killed and placed in a
collection ; but I have not met with it in East Kent.

Neither have I found the rare ant-like fossor,
MtUilla ciiropea, in the nests, although it has been
recorded from Hampshire in the nests of i9. agrorjwi
and several other species. The female of this
remarkable parasite is about half-an-inch long, wing-
less and black, with the greater part of the thorax

' Other beetles that I have r.umi in hunihlc-bee's nests are .-inlhero/'ha^in
silaceus, Ciy/lop/ui^'us sctulosu,, Efurua .i-s/ivu, Lal/iriiii.aim alrocephalutii,
and Chokia nigricans. I'robahly the three latter were casual visitors.

A little Broionid (kinc! of ichneumon- tly), which Mr. Clauile Morley has
cletermined a. l)eing closely allie.l to (possibly identical with) HiHaomam
inysladniis, « is found in several nests containing AiilJierop/tai;us, and is
perhaps parasi ic on it.

Mr. \V. H. Tuck at Uury .St. E.lmunds found over fifty species of beetles
and several Heniiptera, etc., in humble-lice nests, an.l also brcil the following
Diptera from larv.e foun.l in the nests ■.—Chrysotoxum Jislirum (/>'. lafiJariti^),
E>-iila!is intri.arius {/.'. agrcrum ), and Lauozoma tu, oriim {H. reinstris). .See
Tuck's lists of species in thf /■n.'.imo/ri^isfs Monthly Magazine, July 1896,
p. .53, and March 1S97, p. 5S.

J^tACMAxM ^*.^^-L!.»^i

IV

PARASITES AND ENI-MIES

79

red, and with three bands of golden hairs ;icross
the abdomen. The male is winged and has the
abdominal bands silvery,

Ahnost every humble-bee's nest is more or less
infested with mitis. minute eight-legged animals
related to the spiders and ticks. They are harmless
to the humble-bees and feed on wa.\ or on the food
supplied to the humble-bee larva.% for the young
mites may .sometimes be found swarming under their
wa.xen coverings. When the young (jueens are
developed these mites leave the comb and crawl on
to their bodies, obtaining a lodgment among the
hairs, and in this way they are carried into the new
nests the following spring. Over a hundred of these
mites may sometimes be found on a single quee.i ;
they chiefly congregate on the back of the thorax
and base of the abdomen.

Among the harmless denizens of the nest must
be included a small lepidopterous caterpillar that
much resembles the young larva of the wa.\-moth,
but it is less active, spins no web, and does not
attain a greater length than about a quarter-of-an
inch.

A not uncommon parasite of the humble-bee is
the thread-worm Splucmlaria bombi. This worm
has a remarkable life-history which is described as
follows by Professor Sedgwick :— " There are small
nematodes, the females of which alone are parasitic.
These, after copulation in the free state with the
small males, migrate into insects, and, under the
favourable conditions of parasitism, not only increase

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THE HUMBLE-BEE

enormously in size, but also undergo structural
modifications favourable for the production of a
large number of embryos. In Sp/ucmlaria bombi,
the remarkable parasite of the humble-bee, the
females, after copulating in the free state, migrate
into the queen-bees that live through the winter.
Here the gut degenerates and a kind of hernia of
the body-wall, containing the generative organs, is

KlG. lb.-- Spharuhuia hm,H. .1, KiTiinle willi partially protruded vagina, s.
Jl. The same with still more dcvt-loped uterine growth, !. C, Uterine out-
growth fully formed containir.g ov.ary, oviduct, and uterus, xc. The relatively
iuinutc Irady of the worm. All niagnitied about ten times. (.After Sedgwick).

formed, while the body of the worm shrinks to a
small appendage. The eggs develop in the body of
the insect into larva; which pass out of the body,
become free and after some months become sexually
mature." ' The parasite lives in the abdomen and
the uterine outgrowth, which may be found fully
developed in the hibernating queens where it attains
a length of about half-an-inch, looks at first sight as

' ./ Stiuient's r,.xt-/iook 0/ /.oo.'o^^', by A. .^edgwick, r.K..S., vol. j. pages
282 and 2S3. .See aN,, K. Leucliarl', A'eiif Jititra^^e :. A'fnntiiiss ,/. NinuUoani,
Leipzig, 1SS7.

I i!

■^%i:^k:;^nm^i-i:^r

IV

PARASITES AND ENEMIES

if

Si

if i: might be a portion of the intestine of the
bee. I once found on a tlower in the beginning of
July an aih'ng old terrestris queen with her abdomen
full of hair-like worms, probably Sphavularia bonibi.
The parasite is said to be particularly common in
Epping Forest.

Badgers are said to be fond of scratching out
and eating the nests. Moles and weasels also
destroy them. But the greatest mammalian enemies
of the humble-bees are shrews and field mice. These
destroy the nests before any workers have emerged
devouring the brood, and they are the only verte-
brates against which there is strong evidence of
having destroyed any of the nests that I have kept
under observation at Ripple. My experiences of
their depredations, and also of the harm done by
ants, will be given later (pages 116-119).

Not many animals prey on the adult humble-bee.
It is well known that the red-backed shrike brings
them to its larder, impaling them on thorns, but
birds in general avoid them. Hoffer found swallows
and domestic fowls catching and eating humble-bees ;
but in East Kent I have never seen the former take'
them, and the latter, I notice, are afraid of them. I
have seen places where the hibernating queens have
been picked out of the ground, probably by birds.

Saunders says that dead humble-bees are often
found in numbers in a mutilated state under lime
tn-es, and explains that they have been caught, after
tney have filled themselves with honey and become
drowsy, by the great tit and possibly other birds.

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82

THE HUMBLE-BEE

The bird after catching the bee picks a hole in its
abdomen, enjoys the honey it has eaten, and then
drops the quivering body, which falls to the ground.
He once had the opportunity of seeing the slaughter
going on, and was able to detect the great tit as the
murderer.'

Lastly, man himself must be reckoned among the
enemies both of the humble-bee and its nest, and the
humble-bees share the distrust of him that is uni-
versal among wild animals. One is reminded of
Titaniii's injunction to the fairies in the Midsummer
Nio;ht's Dream : —

The honcy-b.-igs steal from the humble-bees ;
.And for night tapers crop their waxen thij;hs,
Anil light them at the (itry giow-wornrs eyes ;

and of the request that Bottom, later on in the play,
makes to Cobweb to " kill me a red-hipped humble-
bee, and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag."
It may be remarked that it is not necessary to kill
a humble-bee to obtain its honey, for it can be made
to disgorge it by pressure on the abdomen from
behind.

' Wild Bia, /r<u/.f, aHt/.-i/z/f, by E. Saunders. (Koutledge, 1907. )

i^^HSS^l&^yiilHI^^^^^lSli^-^^

V

FINDING AND TAKING NESTS

It was one of the pleasures of my boyhood, and it
IS no less enjoyable now, to find nests of humble-
bees, especially of the rarer species, and transfer
them to suitable places in the garden where their
workmg can be watched. The operation of digginir
out the nest is full of excitement and surprises, and
the humble-bees settle down quickly r.nd happily in
their new quarters, where, rid of parasites, they often
succeed better than if they had been left alone.

A nest may be discovered accidentally, the bees
having been noticed passing in and out ; or we may
specially go out to search for the nests, and this in
Itself is good sport. June and July are the best
months m which to look for humble-bees' nests ; but
a few in an early stage may sometimes be found at
the end of May. or we may take them in August
after they have reached the height of their pro-
sperity, although this is not so satisfactory.

It is important to choose a day on which ther- is
I'ttle or no wind. The most promising places to
search over are grassy banks and the borders of

83

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TlIK llUMHLi:-lU:i-

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old woods, especially those containing decaying
tree stinn[)s. Other good places are th' edges of
meadows, paddocks, rickyards, rough wast • ground,
and ferneries consisting of grubbed-up tree-roots.

To discover the nests it is best to walk slowly
along the foot of the bank or the outside c the
wooil, stopping at times, and all the while keeping
vine's eyes resting on a spot about twenty yards
ahead on the bank or in the wood, ready to follow
with the eye, if not on foot, every humble-bee that
is seen or heard. Here the advantage of a calm
day is realised, for the waving of the grass in the
wind and the rustling of the foliage make it very
difficult to see or hear any bee that is not very
close, and impossible to keep it within sight longer
than a moment, particularly as the wind may cause
its flight to be somewhat erratic. If we are in East
Kent, though other parts of the country can hardly
differ much in this respect, we shall be rewarded
within a few minutes by the sight of a humble-bee
either leaving or entering its nest. The beginner,
however, is very likely to be puzzled or deceived
by the sight of a male of B. pratoruvi or B. hor-
tonim lightly flying along the bank and pausing for
a moment, without quite settling, at the foot of a
certain tree, or in a shady recess under a particular
shrub, followed sooner or later by another (see
p. 13). Hut if we see a bee alight and not rise
again we may be pretty sure we have found a
nest, especially if its tiight is heavy pnd deliberate.
Care must be taken not to disarrange the grass

r ^1 .

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■ «. .^v-v. n.v.y ,Y,,, iji^

unable to show us the way in. We may now capture
a specimen to ascertain the species, and also find
out if the nest is underground or on the surface ; in
the latter case a gentle patting of the surrounding
herbage will elicit a muffled buzzing from it and so
reveal its position. .Should it not be desired to take
the nest at once, its position may be marked by
placing a stick in the ground close to it ; or, in the
case of a nest in an open bank, a stone or two from
the road or field may be placed opposite it. Another
good way to remember the location of a nest is to
note two prominent objects, one much nearer than
the other that it brings into line, this imaginary line
bemg afjout at right angles to the bank or path
near which the nest is situated.

On calm days I have often discovered nests on
the roadside when out driving in my trap while it
's going at walking pace up or down hills An
excellent time to find the nests is in the evrwiing
when the wind has died down, for th(. humbl,--
bees keep busy till just before sunset, and in warm
weather till dusk.

Many nests may often be discovered in newly-
mown hay-fields, where the bees, having hr,:n thrown
into confusion by the cutting of the hay, may be
seen hovering around the spots endeavouring u>

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86

THE IIUMRLE-HHH

find the way in. Unfortunately the hay - rake
destroys many surface nests, consequently these
should be taken directly the hay is cut.

As regards the taking of the nest, I have never
been able to improve upon a method 1 devised when
a boy.

The apparatus needed is quite simple — a strong
trowel, two glass jars with narrow necks. — ordinary
I lb. jam jars do very well, — and two scjuares of card
large enough to cover the mouths of the jars ; also
a little box to hold the comb, though in my boyhood
I used to carry it in my pocket-handkerchief.

The nest should be taken in the afternoon.
Having found the hole in the ground that the bees
pass through, I start digging it out with the trowel,
taking care not to lose it. After going straight down
for a few inches the hole generally takes an oblique,
and finally an almost horizontal course. I dig a
little deeper than the hole, thus keeping a cavity
underneath it, into which all the loose earth falls,
and out of which it can be easily shovelled. Sooner
or later the hole may divide into two or more, and
now it is a question which of these leads to the nest.
One is not kept long in doubt. There is a rumbling,
followec' by an angry buzz, and out rushes a very
fussy worker from one of the holes. She may
tumble out into the cavity and there lie motionless
on her back, ready to seize and sting anything
that touches her, or she may attempt to seek safety
in Hight, or she may run back down the hole, growl-
ing as she goes. But before she has time to decide

TAKING NESTS

8:

which of these she will do I

generally capture her

m one of the glass jars that I have in readiness,
clapping the cardboard over its mouth. This jar 1
stand in a convenient place on level ground about a
yard away and place a stone or lump of earth on
the cover to prevent the wind blowing it off. Con-
tinuing to dig out the hole, it is not long before I
am greeted by another worker from the nest ; she
is promptly captured in the other jar ; this jar is
then placed, mouth downwards, on top of the first
jar, the two cards drawn out and the two jars given
a vigorous shake ; this causes the bee in the upper
jar to drop into the lower jar containing her comrade ;
one of the cards is then quickly slipped over the
mouth of the lower jar and the stone replaced on it.
Thus all the bees that come out are caught, one by
one, in one of the jars, and collected in the other
jar. The process of securing the bees in this way
is not so laborious as it may seem, and one soon
gets quite skilled and quick at it, so much so that it
becomes easy to catch two, sometimes three, bees at
a time.

Bees that lie on their backs will often grasp and
cling to a corner of the card if it be presented to
them. The edge of the card may then be struck
sharply against the rim of the jar, with the result
that the bee falls into the jar.

The nest is generally a foot and a half to two
feet from the entrance and about fifteen inches deep,
but some are a yard or more from the entrance and
very deep. To dig up deep nests a spade saves

-u

'If
f .'■

■'I

l^^nr^^'^r^.

! i

; i

88

THE MUMIUJ'-in-.I':

time. To avoid waitiiij; for bees to appear I find it
a .ijood plan to blow down tht- hole; this, provided
the nest is not a ^reat way off, or in a branch hole,
will briny; up a bee. oft«Mi several, immediately, or
at least it will cause hv\/./.\n^, which assures one
that the right hole is beinj,' followed. For this
purpose a (le.xible jMieumatic tube with a mouth-
piece would, I should think, be very convenient and
effective. As a boy I did not mind putting my head
down into the cavity to blow into the hole.

It is a good plan to stuff rags into any branch
holes one has temporarily abandoned, then one can
easily nnd them again and follow them up if the hole
that is being worked at proves abortive. In cases
where the hole is lost and choked the only thing to
do is to scrape out the cavity and leave the nest
until another day, when it will generally be found
that the bees have made a way for themselves in
and out again.

When workers begin rushing out in numbers in
quick succession it is a sign that we are not far from
the nest, especially if some of them are immature.
One must be careful not to plunge the trowel into
the comb, but generally one gets warning that the
nest is being approached— the loud deep buzz of
the agitated queen, often accompanied by the feeble
murmur of several recently emerged workers, which
are now likely to run out, and finally the appearance
of the nest material. In order to unearth the nest
without injuring it, it is advisable to undermine it.
While this work is proceeding the queen may rush

'Him.%^^\^:^^Miifmit:-j^^^ ^^•^z^^m^m^ssm^i^mm^^.

TAKIXG NESTS

S9

out, and oru; must take can- to catch her uiih..,it
injurifiK h»:r, and to put her with her children in the
Klass jar. She is gen.— 'ly easily secured, beinjr
often too heavy to fly, but .ihould she take win- she
will return sooner or later, though she will be rather
wild and shy. If the colony is not in an advanced
stage there will now be not a bee left in ih,- n,,-st.
and one may boldly put in on(,-'s hand and lift it out.
If, however, some males and queens hav<; emerged,
a few of these will be present, but they will be
inoffensive, seeking only to hiue themselves by
creeping into the nest material, or to escap.; by
flight. The comb should be carefully placed in the
box with a little moss tr, keep it from rolling about,
but without any of the nest material, which is likely
to contain parasites or their egfs.

We may now turn our attention to the bees that
were in the fields when we began operations, and
which have been too shy to approach while we have
been digging. If we step back a few paces they
will gather round and, searching about, will soon
find the nest material, impregnated with the odour
of their nest. Alighting upon this, they may easily
be caught.

Many people are deterred from taking a humblo
bees' nest by the risk of stings ; but really this is
very small, and. if care is taken, may be ignored,
except in the case of populous nests of //. terrcslris
and of /A musconim, thou^^h with these only a little
extra care and patience are needed. During the
year 191 [ I took nearly a hundred humble-bees'

'I

i

:^m,^mm^t^^:mM:^y^:^'^^^:

90

THE HUMBLE-BEE

nests ill all statues, including some strong ones of
/>'. tcrrcstris, and did not receive a single sting.
The main points to be observed are to endeavour
to catch every bee that comes out of the nest, and
not to disturb the bees in the nest until nearly all
have been ca|)tured. If a worker does escape now
and then, it is not likely to attack you unless it is a
tcrrcstris or ninsconiiii, and even these soon lose
their aggressiveness unless several of their com-
rades have also been permitted to get away ; the
fugitives then rouse one another's anger, and if they
pour out of the nest it is wise to beat an immediate
retreat. The quickest way to take a populous
tcrrcsiris nest is to stupefy the bees by stopping
the hole with a rag on which have been placed a
few drops of ether. In all cases the bees that
return from the fields are perfectly harmless so long
as they do not smell the nest, and if one keeps
working at it they dare not approach near enough
to do this. A queen humble-bee will never attack
a human being, she only stings if she is held or
crushed. When the workers are alarmed in their
nest some of them crawl out and, turning over on
their backs, lie motionless, perhaps for a minute or
two, ready to seize and sting anything that touches
them. The surface -dwelling species are specially
given to doing this, often hiding themselves in the
nest material, which is coloured like themselves,
and one has to be careful not to put one's hand
on them. The two surface -dwelling species, />'.
sylvarnm and B. hclfcranns, are very calm when

J-iLfi^^^^ i U

f^^. . •

TAKING NHSTS

91

tlu.ir iicst is opened ; the majority of the workers
remain quietly on the comb, and the few that take
wing tly straight away.

The humble-bee does not lose its sting in the

'7' — N''->t of /;,.«,,'•«( /:,'//;-nin„-. n.niiiMl si/o.

act of stinging, like the honey-bee ; it can therefore
use it more than once, but the poison is less virulent
than that of the honey-bee or the wasp.

And now, having all the bees safely collected in
one of the glass jars and the comb in the box, we

it

J

^» 1

! i

U2

III I'. iiijmiuj:-|{i:i-

briii^f thfiii home .iml [ircparc ;i ilomitilc for thcin.
I In; l)('ts will I)C none the uoisi; for Ihmiijj; coiit'iiunl
in till- j.ir for one or two hours, providcd'thi-y liavt;
bofti siipplit:il with air and .ir<; not too niinuTous-
fifty arc t;noLi;;h for a i ih. jam jar of 2\ ins. ilia-
nu'tcr. The brood will not sufftr from the tempor-
ary loss of bees if it is not exposed for lonj,' to hot
sunshine or a cold wind.

I limible-bees cannot be ke[)t in wooden hives
like honey-bees, mainly for two reasons ; on(! is
that the jarrini,' caused by the opening; and shuttinjr
of the hive would throw them into e.xcitement and
confusion, and the other is that in order to keep the
nest sweet and clean it is necessary for it to rest
upon, or be surrounded by earth.

The simplest way to re-establish the colony is to
place the comb, surrounded with a good supply of
moss or curly, soft, dead blades of grass, upon the
ground — any convenient part of the garden will do
— putting a large box or tlower-pot uf^side down
over it to protect it from sunshine and rain. The
\k:::s will soon draw the material over the comb,
making themselver. very comfortable and warm
underneath it. Hut if a view of the comb is de-
sired it should be placed without any material under
a S laden cover (see page 109), or enclosed in a
box scarcely larger than itself and having no to[)
or bottom, the box being covered with a sheet
ol glass. 'I'his box may be pla, d on the ground
inside an (.uter box, but for frequent or long-con-
tinued (observations a much more convenient and

FAKING NI-STS

93

s.itisfactory ])l;m is to put it on ;i slu.-ll' i a wooden
house specially futed up to take huiiiljle-bccs' nests,
as trxplainecl in the next chapiter.

Kvenin^f is the luist time to put the htrs into
their new liome. The comb havinj^ been place-il
where it is inteniled to remain, the b(!es, which
have now become drowsy and listless, are shaken
out of their jar on to it, the jar beinj; sharply
r.ipped so that they all fall out at once. When a
llower-pot is used to cover the nest the jar may be
simply placed upside down over the hole in the top
of the pot. Finding themselves on the brood again,
the bees revive and begin to clean and trim them-
selves, and in a worv' rfuHy short time they recover
completely, a' 1 run ; out over the comb carrying
out their duties (exactly as the^ did before the nest
was taken. It is necessary at first to allow the bees
no way of escape from the receptacle containing the
comb, otherwist; many of them would tly or crawl
away and get lost ; but after an hour or two, when
it is dark, and they have all settled down on the
comb, a tlight-hole may be made by raising the edge
of the box or pot with a [)iece of wood or stone, or
in any other convenient way, care being taken not
to disturb the bees, and next morning they will be
seen working busily, tlying in and out in perfect
contentment. If the okl location of the nest is not
far away some of the old bees will return to it, but
not many, and their loss will soon be made good bv
the fresh ones emerging from the comb.

1:

in

I

VI

i i;

]tf !

1 i

I-

[I i

m

tin

HI

A HUMBLE-HEE HOUSE

\\ HKX one is attending to and observing a numl^er
of colonies it is a great advantage to have them
arranged close together, under cover, and at a con-
venient height from the ground. To meet this

" - 6fi:

1M<,. 1S.--1'I.,„ ,.f SlAd.n's nun,I,l.-l„,. Hous,-, shoun.i,' p„.,l„m ofholr. for
.•:-ht ih -t, ill li,,.. l„,it.)iii ,,f il,e liou>L' and uf thr m-bts on the sli.'lvrs.

object I have devised a humble-bee house, which
has enabled me to carry out my observations under
the most favourable and ^>Ieiisant conditions.

Tlie house itself consists of an ordinary wooden
hut, 6 ft. long. 4 ft. 0 in. wide, and 6'fr. high,
covered with match boards. There is no Moor.
There is a window on one side, and this ou^dit to

94

A HUMBLE-BHE HOUSE

95

be made to open. Inside the house are fitted two
shelves, one on each side, extendinj^^ from end to
end of the house. Each shelf consists of a board
9 in. wide and i in. thick, and is at a height of
2}, ft. from the ground. I-^ach shelf will accom-
modate four colonies.

Figure 19 shows a vertical section tlirough one
ot the domiciles. The comb is contained in wooden

extra upper box
upper box

V\',. 19.— VL-rtic.U Sfctir.n thrnui;h a •loniitiic ]n Sl.idi-ii'.^ I luinlilo-ho- IIoum-.

sections or storeys, which are multiplied as it grows.
At the bottom is the starting section, measuring
only 2}, in. wide by 3.^ in. long on top and 2 J in.
long at the bottom, with an entrance hole at the
end. This storey is large enough to hold the comb
until the first batch of workers is succeeded by
others. Then a second storey, measuring 3\ in.
by 4 in., is placed over the first, and this when
filled with comb is capped by a third ai^d still larger
storey, measuring 4 in. by 5 in. Prosperous nests
of /)'. lapidai-ins and tcrrcstris usually require a
fourth storey of the same size as the third. A

1

;i ! ^

I t

96

'HR IIUMin.H-MF;[{

•^'i<vt of ^I.iss is pl.ucl
ami throiioli tin's tli,. I

over the n

I'pci-most section.

"■(■s cm he rcn at worlv.
"'""'■"cs .„•<■ o.iui.-ctc.l In- |l,,NiI.I,; t„l

"i.ulc ol spiral tiiiiictl-stcrl

K'S

throiit;!! tin- hoium i)I

wn; K, l,oI,.s l„,n.,l

lolcs arc mail

|)lat(;s of the hoi

ISC

<■' as far I

Th

CSC

so that the

loin one another

workers of cadi nest cl

IS possibh;,

o not mistake;

th

cir nci

ghb

beinq- bored i

ours entrances for th

the h

n each end and t

ouse. I found th

eir own— two holes
^vo in each side of

slip as they ascended the tub

ti workers were inclined

provide them with a -ood foothold I

cs, and in order

to
to

vear

to coat the tubes with v,

sand throun;h tl

irnish,

T

em while tl

le

le chief point n-q

^■arnish is wet.

intend next
and to pass

nest of humblc-b

uirmnr attention in

^*es IS the ke

sweet; but I find that th

<'])ini4- of it c:

;m indoor
(■an .md

IS can be manat-ed 1

)V

4*

A iiUMi'.i.i;-i?i:i-: iioush o;

h.ivin^r the ii(;st sections lu. hr^rs than the si/c of
ihi: cotiil). sf) thai then- arc no lari^^c spaces in tlicir
corners wlien; (•xcrenient can he deposited, an(h at
the- same tinif.-, i^hicint,^ a vesiihule, (onsisiini; of a
hox containin^r a h'ttle fine f:arth, hetween the nest
and the frntrance tuhe. 'I he excrement is th.'n
ejected on to the earth, chie^lly in the corners oi tiie
vestibule that are farthest from the nest ; and at
intervals the; soiled earth may he removed and
replaced by fresh f:arth. In this way a lnnnl>le-
Ijee' nest i^ not more difficult to keep c|<Mn than
;. rd-caw:— in fact less so, for the earth iK.'d not
be renewed rjftener than once a week. The clean-
in^/ of the vestibule is f.nly for one's own comlort,
for the humble-i;ecs do not suffer if it is l.-fi im-
cleaned. A sheet of ^^lass covers the vestibule.

Jo prevent the iiumble-bees from lii"titi,L; the
sheets of j^das-, coverin^^ th,; ve.-,tibule an-I nest, I
I.Iace over each ,:,da^^ a [.iece of tile wi^diinL: 'ibout
halt-a-pound, with a sq jare of felt under it. 'I lir
tile and telt also help to conserve lieat, and, in
addition, keep out lij/ht. which the }iund*!e-bees
dislike in their dueliin- althou-h, like hf.nr-yd.rr;,.
tPit:}' soon becom'- accuTton'ief! to it.

The be^t way to -.tock the iioii^e is to j^r.'i the
nests r^tarted out-of-r;.,or^ urid'T Slarl-'ii wr.odeii
cover:, (-,ee p. :o>t, .. ,rl then as soon a-, the hrst
uorkerr, have emer:;ed. to place th';ni in thf start -
:n- sections, f^;e.-i:n^ th.-n U^r a few r!a\s until they
can support the-:^^:;ve~. Coir.ujr, ,,( A,/,„/,///,r,,
^vn:ch ;-, the :.: ecie^ n:o.: iik'sy to n- ,t uudr,- th,.

(t

! - ■

im

_*'.-ji7l"..

«' I

\' i :

: I

i-4 II: 1

II

08

Tin- iiUMULi:-iu:r':

VI

wooden covers, tlo very well in iIk; humljl(;-hec
house, the nature of this species Ixjinj,' ohv.w lo
m.ike its abode in this kind of siuiation. I have; also
kept colonies of /ty/rs/ns, /mom///, and r/idvra(/ts
in the hiniible-bee house, and they liave done well.
Some of the colonies were dui:: I'P i" tlic fields,
where tliey had a larg.- comb and many workc.-rs. In
these cases the C(jmb w.is packed into two 4-in. x 5-in.
sections, and no smaller sections were used. I see
no reason why colonies of the carder- bees should
not flourish equally well in a humble-bee hous<:.

It is sometimes an advantage to be able to
separate the sections after they have been filled with
comb. This can be done by previoLisly stretching
fine tinned wire three or four times across the
bottom of each section on fine nails driven into
the underside of the section. I-"rom one of my
laptda/-i/is nests I removed the two bottom sections
tilled with cocoons containing over four ounces of
thick honey without destroying the colony.

My humble-bee house was situated so that it was
shaded from sunshine during the greater part of
the day. This was rather important, for continuous
sunshine on the black felt roof would soon have
made the humble-bees uncomfortably hot.

The grass was allowed to grow high all round
the house. The workers found their way in and
out through it easily, and the variety of its growth
helped them to recognise the exact position of their
respective e.itrances.

When all the eight domiciles were occupied by

A iicMrujMJKi.: ii(njsi{

t)<)

IH>1

jiiloijs colonics, It \va:-

I>r<:tly to sc<- tlx' iniincroiis

workers busily (lyi,,'.; n, and out all roiin.l tin- hous.-
day after day, som'ttirncs till laK; in llie ev.Miini;. It
was interesting,' to watch thmi 'liinbin- tlir' wire
tuhes, to follow thcin into their nc-sts. and then to
see them unburden themselvc-, r,f tlx'ir Ir.ads ,,f
[;ollen and nectar.

One j,'reat advanta'^^f; in havin^r sf, manv nests

under ones eye at the same time was that there
was always something,' intere.tin- -oin- on in some
In one the oueen mi^^i.t be j^Mvin^ the

of them.

fml^hln^ touche. to a cell m whicli she was about
to lay a batch of c-^^^. ; in another the f|ueen mi^^ht
be repulsing the attacks of the workf:rs rm her new-
laid egg, ; and in a third a worker might be .,•,■„
injecting food into a wax-covered clusf-r oi larv.r,
or helping a baby brother or sifter u, f re^j, out of
its cocoon.

A very good time to watch the b'-es ir; their ru-sts
was at night. fr.r wniie they were liable sometimes
^"^ '^''' 'disconcerted by dayiight, they completely
Ignored the iight cf a car.die, pre- irler] fJK-y uere
net disturbed. At n;gnt, too, the fell populations
ga'. e tn- co.on:e, a v-r\ g^iy :,r.d anim;ited appe.u'
ance. It wa,^ ^ p.ea.^ant relaxation ;ifter tjie day's
'■'■'-■^ ';^ ^^' '^- ^ ^^^:- i:-!!': th- lio-ise and stud
tne var;o.,. proceedings of the r.er-,; :,^,i ,},,. ,_,,|

w^s con-; .:c.e to cio.e of.v^rvatiou.
-^- r

'y

E.xcent w

-j.-i-.s ^.:t. 1.

- 1 .%ent

•: ', :\

'.Lf ''jOSe-v;.t|r,ris \\\ tfie
CO', e'e-j y,-it,i a thif 1;

if

if

jS f

\

il

:t

uorr.ers vvou

, \

nave

loo

II ii: iirMi!ij;-r,|.:i.;

i t

i I

I i

I'tt ' i

li.ul ,1 nic.ii ,|,..,| ,,|- iliiiiinlty ill Ir.iinm^ how i,,
liiul tlicir- u.iy up .uul doun ihr tnlics.

A j.ir threw ,ill tlu- lolonics into ,iii uproar, the
\V()ri<cr.s irowJiuo io,L;<th(r and tuuiiihiii; over one
another in their e.xcileiiunt ; l.iii ihey soon (piieied
ilowii. Ol' eourse. as no lu^es lould ••-.cape inside;
the house, tliere w.is no risk ol L;etlinn sIuiil;. .\l
list the le.ist vi')ration eaiised ,i c-omniotioii ; later
on. howi'ver, llie lues i)e,-,nne areiislomc <1 to sh'^ht
Jars, am! as a rule they took no iiotid: of them, l.ul
occasion, illy, in some of the nesls, tile al.iriii would
he niised i.y ,1 worker or two. and it then .[uickly
spri'ad tlirouj^h the colonw

l're(iuent p.mics set'med to check tlu; prosi)erity
of the colonies ; I therefore ki'i)t them as (iiiiet as
possible, .md I made tlu; tloor of the houst; to open
n(MselessIy with a spring- fisten<;r so th.il mv <M)in<'-
m and out ditl not cause any disturbance.

it was necessary to remove the vestibule in

order io clean it. To prevent the bees escapins^

when takino; it away 1 slippi'd a strij) of tin plate

over th. hole in the bottom section. When I

wished to confine the bees for a day or two, the

tm-phite was slipped between the vestibule and the

entrance tube. Sometimes I wanted to ct)nfine the

queen and not th..- workers to the nest : this was

done by substituting for the tin-plate a thin board con-

taininL,^ a slot tcjo small f(.)r the queen to escape, but

!ar-e enou,i;h to permit the passa,<,re of the -..orkers.

l!y taking care to avoiil jarring and breathing

'jpon the bees, I could always lif' the glas.s off a

Hi

*^T7Sr"'Sf'»^x"

A iii:.Mi;ij;-i',i;i': iioiisi', ,01

lo/'i./.ntiis 11- St. ;iii.| inj,<t lion.y into lli.. , rlls, or
uiiIkIimw hr.ii.y Iroiii tlicm, l,y incnis o| a |„illi-
\vni!-.-, vvitlioiu t'Mi- .,)■ t|„- u.,rL.rs l.r.oniin-
al.irinr.l anr| (lyin-^, r,nt. I ,o,iM ,,| ,r, ,1,, ,|,i>, ,viih
U'-ai: 'olr,„i<:., ol hrn ■/,,., l,,,t |.o|,ul.,iis ...loniVs ol
/trirJri. thniw lh.:in vivrs into a ,tat<- of aiu;iy
tumult as ^(,(,i\ as I alt';mi;t':<i to lilt iIh: i/iass.

In y,u\.fj':^ r.':-~. I'r..- ],.■'■. f;, ,tf:r,<-ri rh'- '.i-l--, ,,1'
'■'■'' ~-^^^ ''^ th- to;, of-.': .'-.ty,- ■.^;t^, wax. 'f tl|.-i"
'■'• ;^ - .":: .:':n: -'.^•. .•: t'o;. '.vo ;! ; ■.■.] ,<, < ',vr tl.'-ir ' oiiil)
■'•■"' '■ ■ '~- '■■ ''■■■■'■'■ -''r.'.:r.. of ", .r /■, i./! ti,-- r,,Mil,

'• '■ '• ■'• ''-' -'■': *- "■■ 0':0_; '■; .t T, /'//,/,/ />-of . li"M .
''•'■' _•:'-;':. .y ..:,- ':.':. r /.OTi'v ; ,';t , id
■' ■" ' " ■ r.-.-.-r.'.:' - ; '.:.:■ ;,:.'/'//;■,, ;,h ol a

i .'.

-.- ■.'(_,

I i

VII
no.MHSTlCATIOX OF THE HUMBLK-

iu:e

1 1- one takes a colony with its brood and places it
in a suitable receptacle in the garden or on a shelf
of the humble-bee house, one sees how its existence
is maintained and ends ; but one gets no information
as to how the colony started and what took place
during its early stages, a particularly interesting
period. ^ Nests in the stage before any workers have
emerged may be discovered without much ditficulty,
and I find that it is possible to remove them suc-
cessfully provided the operation is not carried out
mitil after the first larvce have spun their cocoons.
I- or, while the queen has only eggs or young Iarv:e
to care for, any alarm will cause her to desert the
nest ; but as the brood grows older her attachment
to it increases, and when it consists of pup.e that
are not far f.-om developing into workers she will
not readily forsake it, any slight interference causing
her to brood over it more devotedly than ever. aI
this period, if the queen is secured and placed in a
bo.x with the brood, she will sit en it until the

ITS DOMESTICATION

'03

-'

-I

workers cmcrj^c, provided of course that she is
suppHed with food. The queen's inteHigence is
seen at its best while she is thus caring' for her
brood, and her devotion to it, and her alertness on
the slightest ap[)roach of danger, are most interesting
to witness. She shows no desire to escape; unless
she is severely moh.-sted, and is quite content with
her brood, anxiously incubating it day and night.
It is important not to allow the queen her liberty,
for if she is permitted to take wing she will return
to the original location of her nest and, after vainly
searching about for it there, she will fly away anil
be no more seen. As a precaution against loss,
her wings may be clip[)ed.

In May 1909 a liti'intnt (jueen was found to
have occupied a mouse-nest under a large bo.x
that had been placed, bottom upwards, on the
grass in my apiary the previous year. As the nest
contained cocoons, I brought the queen with her
brood indoors and fed her daily. She was devoted
to her brood and never left it except to drink the
honey I provided, or to perform other necessary
duties, and she showed great agit.ition if, wh-n
returning to the brood, she did not find her way
to it at once. When the workers emerged I clipped
the queen's wings, and put the box containing the
nest out of doors, under an inverted llower-pot,
feeding the bees a little during the first few even-
mgs. In a few days the 'ittie colony was able to
support itself and it soon grew fairly prosperous.
In due course it produced males and queens, but

■! i;

■i
ft

%

! i
I i

I i

if '

iii

Hif

104

Tin: nuMHLH-ni'K

vrt

(I I

fv.-nliially wax - moth caterpillars cl,-v..urrcl the
brootl.

ATTRACTING QUEENS TO OCCUPY ARTIFICIAL
DOMICILES

Towards th.- c.Kl of April ,So4 I „Kulr a hall
of s„lt dead f.brc fro,„ a tuft ..f pampas ^rass and
I'I;icrd ,t Ml s„me Umii grass. I Idt this ball un-
'•■sturlH-d luuil June 4, when, on examining it. great
w.is my pleasure to h.ul it occupied by an ^-vvr/.;,,
queen. I he material had been worked into a snug
"est, mside which were live cocoons containing
piqw, one batch of very young larva- and a hone^^
pot lull o( honey.

The next spring I made about twntv nests
U-om the soft dead blades of grass that are in some
situations to be found in tufts under the new growth
this bemg the material of which the mice in the'
neighbourhood generally make their nests In
some cases I lined the nest with still softer material
obtamed by unravelling old rope and cuttinc. it up
■mo lengths of about half-an-inch. Although I
placed these nests in the most likely places I could
think of, such as on grassy banks and under ivy at
the edge of a wood, not one of them was occupied
In- hmnble-bees.

Xo further attempts were made to lure queens
"Uh artihcial nests until the year ,90,, when it
occurred to me to try to attract the underground-
awelhng species by placing my nests under the
ground.

AiTRAcriNG ori;i:xs

io>

1

I

4

I'.ach (loinicilr was prepared hy cuitini^' out a
r<'( tani^'ular sod with a sharp spade ; the tloor of
the excavation from which the sod was tak.'ii was
levelled, ami in ilic (•«-ntrc of it a small round
cavity ahout .|-iii. in diameter was made with a
trow<l. This cavity was to contain the nest.
.\<'.\t, a tunnel i-in. in dianK.-ter and al)out 2 feet
l'>n-. as a passaj,re for the bees coimectin- the
cavity with the surface of th(; <,M-oimd, was made
hy drivinj,^ through the ground a steel rod haviiv

2J. - >iHliril| 1,1 Sl,„lr

huinl.l,' l„

r.i' I illi'l.-ri;i.,!|iM|.n.',li!iL;

a thickened and pointed head. The mouth of the
tunnel had the grass close around it plucked short
so that it might he easily noticetl by the searching
(lueens. Most of the nestr were made of dead
grass like those matle in 1S95, but some consisted
of soft moss torn to pieces and rolled into a ball,
and a few were made of tow which, after it had
been deodori.sed by exposure to the wt.-ather f(;r a
few days, was cut up into lengths of about half-an-
inch. The nest having been deposited in the
cavity, a tile was placed over it, the S(k1 w.is put
b<h:k in its place over the tile, and the edges of the
Si id were stamped down.

if

ill

ft!
ifi

I Ob

TIIF' lIUMnLH-UKI-:

VII

:-% -

Vi'

' i

!! i

m

AlxHit twenty of ihtsf .irtitkial uiuI.TK'n.uiul
doini.iU-s were: fornictl iti May in and around my
apiary, which Is a favoiiritf; spot (or hurnhlc-l)c,-s to
n.-st in l,ccaiisf the- plot, almost an acre in si/c. is
cov.rctl with -rass that is lU'Ver j^ra/cd, .uid is sur-
roiinded by yonnj; Austrian pines and other husliy
trees, singl.- specimens of which an; scattered al)out.
An examination of these nests in 'u: miiliih; ot
June showed that several of them haci .,een occupieil
I>y (lue.ns who had started breedinj^^ in them [)iit
had deserted, for they contained mouKly remains of
IH)llen, honey-pots, and in some cas.'s brood. The
nests were more or less w.tt. and the nest cavities
w..-re occupied I)y c.-ntipedes, millipedes, slugs, and
b<-etles. Some of the nests were saturated with
w-ater. and contained earth-worms and their casts.
The cause of the queens desertin- w.is apparently
the damp and the vermin. In one of tht; nt'sts.
however, a poor hoiionnn cpicen was found dead
with her feet entanjrled in tow, which, evidently, had
not been cut short enouj^di.

The following sprin.^r, in April, I pi,t down forty
more nests. The domiciles were made like those of
the previous year, but I covered some of them with
bee-hive roofs in th<- hope that these would kec^p
them dry— an expectation that was not realised. The
domiciles were numbered consecutively, the num-
ber bein- painted in black on a white 'stick, which
was afterwards stuck in the sod covering each nest.
I found these sticks very useful to mark the spots,
which soon became overgrown with <rrass.

^imsr.mm:2ja^isssi^^iX^SK^\

Mi^x,\-:^;'>'^r^'

r

\TTk.\CTi\(; oui:i:ns

I

107

I also ,ul(.|.i((l tin; |.!.ai of <-.\aiiiiniii^' all the
(loiiiicilcs every tenth tl.iy or so. n-placin^r the iic-st
m.iterial if wet, which w.is oft«;n die case, with drv
matcri.il. 'Ilu; sods were litt.d with an ordinary
dij^j^inj; fork. When niakinj^ these examinations I
carri<<l in my poeket .1 note-hook, in which was
recordeil anytiiinj^ of interest that was noticed ..bout
the nests.

Nine out of the forty domiciU;s were tenanted by
(|ueens— three lapidarins, a hires/ ns, ;ind a liortontm
having' be-e-n attracted in May, and two /api</ani(s, a
rihh-ra/us, and an unknown queen earl\- in Junt; ; but
only three of the; fiueens. nanu.-ly, two lupidariits
and the ytidcmtits, remained until their larva- span
their cocoons, and only one, a lafidarins, succeeded
in hatching out her first workers and in estalilishinrr
a colony. I formed the conclusion that the majority
of the ([ueens, .after having occupied the nests and
started to breed in them, found tht'm so unsuited to
their reciuiremeiUs that tliev a['aiuu,;;cu them. The
dampness of the nests or the vermin, or both., had
driven them away.

During the next three years no further domiciles
were prepared, but in iqoq two tlourishing colonies
with workers, one of tcrrcsttis and the other of
nidcratiis were found to be occupying two of the
artiticial domiciles made in 1906. Of course, by
this time the ground had become perfectly hard,
and the nests resembled natural nests. The nest
material, though rotten and scanty, proved to be, on
examination, not that which I had placed in the

• ! i'

II ir

vu

{ '<

f :

f

|i|'

! : J

JoS THE HUMBLE-HHK

domiciles three years previously, but finer material
brought there by mice, which had probably fre-
quented the nests during the long interval, otherwise
the tunnels could hardly have remained open so
long.

The following winter, my interest in artificial
domiciles having revived, I determined to t^ive
^hem a much more extensive and thorough trial
than jjreviously.

One of the chief difikulties in preparing a larcre
number of domiciles is to get a sufficient supply of
suitable material for the nests. My experience
seemed to show that moss is not so suitable as fine
half-rotted grass, so I had some of the gra;:. in the
apiary mown in January, when much of i\ was dead
and in March when it was dry I stored it in emptv
h.ves, carefully picking out the stalks and heads, and
cutting ,t with a pair of large scissors into lengths of
about two inches. In this way I got an abundant
supply of material, but it was far from being as fine
as that of a mouses nest, and I feel sure the results
would have been better had the material i.een more
suitable.

I placed about a dozen nests on the surfac- of
the ground under bee-hive roofs, inverted boxc-s
and ,n-en tins. These nests kept fairlv drv but
partly I think because it is not the regular habit of
any species of humble-bee to occupv nests in such
positions, ,and partly because the material was so
coarse, only one was occupied. This nest had been
remade by a mouse, and therefore con^-.i-^d of the

j

ATTRACTIXCx OUKHXS 109

fine material I had failed to supply, h was under
a hive root; and was found to be occupied hy a
liortontni queen on June 2. The queen was (jcca-
sionaliy seen passin- ;,-, and out up til! June 9.
Tlie next day, the (|iic* n n.,i, h,.- in- in-en observed,
I hfted the roof .„! wis sor y to hnd the nest
disarranged, with r tr.K.r ,.r comb. A weasel had

I'li^. 1},. S], Kirn's Doniuii,' f, .r I Iiiinl,;,..!,, ,-.

., SLi, Ion's u.),.,i,n ii.MT. /, iinplrni.-nt fn,- in.,:,,!.- tiir uuin. 1 : /:■. iil.m,ii's

liainiDrr lor iliniiii; irnpli'inml Ihixm^ii lln- i;i-,uiiH!.

been seen five yards from the spot the day before ;

in all probability the brood had been eaten either

by this animal or by a shrew.

Hut my e.xpectations for 1910 were centred in
a new form of cover I had designed for under-
ground domiciles, consisting of a thick woollen disc
having around its i^A^gn a band of sheet metal pro-
jecting downwards. 'Ihe metal band had its upper
edge turned inwards at a tin-plate factory, and this

! ;(}

lit

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11

I lO

THE HUiMBLK-BKE

VII

! i

I

edge was inserted in a oroove made in the edge of
the wooden disc, as shown in Fig. 23. This made
a splendid joint, remaining j^ractically waterproof
and vermin-proof in all weathers. To prepare the
domicile, it was only necessary to place the cover
over a cavity made in the ground for the nest, and
to tread oi stamp on it, so that the metal rim entered
the ground. Thus no crevice was left for veimin
or rain to get in. The cover was also easily lifted
and replaced. It seemed a great im])rovement on
the old method of digging out a sod and placing
a tile under it, and my hopes for it, as will be seen"!
were justified.'

Between April i and the middle of May, scnenty
nests were laid down under these covers in and
around the apiary, in my garden, and around the
edges of the surround':ng plantations of trees. They
were placed in grassy ground where the turf was
firm and fme, the i.ietal rim cutting into the turf and
making for itself a bed, out of which it could be
lifted without raising the surrounding surface when

I wished to examine the nests. The nests were
made of the prepared grass already described. The
tunnels connecting the nests to the surface varied in
length from about 15 in. to 18 in., and were at '
first made about •* in. wide, but, as many got choked,
they were enlarged about the middle of May to {

I I inch. ' I

The nests under these close-fitting covers were ]

' Th:- c-..v.r hns l,.cn r.^Uu-r.-.l, and arrangement, h.uc l.ren ma.le lo, i

...ale- ,n hc-c-a;,,,lunc.-, .in>l cnlom,>i„g,c.il apparatiu lo su,,ply i,. '

VII

ATTRACTING QUEENS

1 1 1

not altogether free from slugs, cc-ntipedes. etc.. nor
did they cep perfectly dry, so I still found it
necessary to replace them with dry ones, and to
clear the tunnels, every tenth day or so ; but this
was because the weather was showery, for in July,
when the ground got dry and hard, the nests
remained dry and the vermin left them.

I found that the chief cause of the nests getting
wet was contact with the damp earth. By takin<r
care that they did not touch the sides of the c- vhy,
and by placing discs of tin-j^late under them, I was
able to keep them much drier.

As slugs and centipedes were often found and
killed in the tunnel when I cleared it. it was evident
that they got into the nest-cavity by passing through
the tunnel ; I think, however, that some of them
travelled through the soil near the surface. The
slugs wetted the nests by crawling over them,
and so helped to draw moisture into them.

Although queens were less plentiful than usual,
owing to the previous unfavourable season, and
although fourteen out of the seventy nests laid down
were rendered useless because they were occupied
by ants or washed out by tloods caused by thunder-
storms, twenty-one' of them were occupied by queens,
and in nine^' the larva.- span their cocoons.' These
results showed that the queens much preferred my
new wood-covered domiciles to the sod-and-tile
covered kind.

' r,, /.,fnA„urs. 3 ^,/,r/^V//„,, , Urres/r:s, i rnd.raa.. I h„,,nnr ,
M'. .-."•»/«, and I species unknown. >^'^onnK, i

»

iit

1 1

THK HUMBLK-BKF-

1 I

M

f
4

'i i ■

! i

i!
J

■s

1!

It seemed thai the only way to fur* escape

troin moisture and vermin was to go 1 k to the
\>\dn of placing; the nests deep in the t;round and
providing them with a long tunnel, as in the ic;o6
exjjeriments, but to liiK' the sides and top of the
nest-cavity with some kind of material impervious
to moisture.

This eiul I endeavoured to accomplish with a
device that I shall call a " tin domicile," because its
essential [)art was a cylinder of tin-i)late, open at
both ends, about 5 in. in diameter, and 5 in. or 6
in. high. My first e.xperiments were made with
orilinary tins, which, though not very suitable, were
good enough to test the principle. I first removed
the bottoms ot the tins with a pair of strong scissors.
To make the domicile, a cavity about 15 in. deep
and a little wider than the size r>f the tin was dug
in the selected spot. While I was digging this
cavity with a trowel, my assistant made the tunnel
or [jassage for the bees, which was about 2 ft. 6 in.
long and il, in. wide, by driving a long steel imple-
.nent through the ground with a mason's hammer,
directing it so as to emerge at the bottom of the
cavity. If the head passed below the cavity the
cavity was deepened to reach it. While the head
of the implement was still in the cavity the tin,
having its lid on, was placed in the cavity over it.
The space outside the tin was then filled up with
earth to a height of about 2 in. below the top of the
tin, the earth being rammed down tight. After this
the implement was withdrawn, the lid of the tin

VII

1

( ^

ATTRACTING QUKKXS

1 1

having I,ee,i previously lift.d off. so that anv loose
earth that might ciroi, into the tunnel could be seen
and removed. Finally the nest was placed inside
th.. tin. the tin closed, and a board placed on the
surface of the ground over the spot.

Rust soon caused the lids to stick to th. cylinders,
so I had to substitute lids of a larger size. To pre-
vent ants and other vermin from getting into the
nest-cav.ty through the joint round the lid, I placed
a sneet of felt between the lid and the cylinder

I'l'i. 24..^-AVrt,cal S,;ai„n .f M „!,■„■. Tin Don.icl,-.
I'. I in lylindcr ; ,', i;n h<\ ; /; ivjt

The rirst eight tin domiciles were put down on
May 23. Unfortunately these were ,,rovided v.ith

smaIIl]athoIes.;;in. by Ui„„ some of which must
have got choked very soun. probably l,y worms
travelling across them ; nevertheless, two of them
were occupied by queens, both being /a/>n/a,y,^.-

Seven more tin domiciles were put down on
May 2; with round holes i i in. wide. Fverv one
'" these became tenanted, six by /cr/>/danus queens
and one by a latycilicHus queen.

iMnally. four more were put down on .May ^o
^vth i,i in. holes. Two of these became wet after

Hf

ill

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! !

m

I

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I I

114

Tni: iirMi'.LF.-HF.i-

a thuncUjrstonn, hrcausc the inoiitlis of tlic lioh^s
were ill a concavity ; hut ot tin- two rctmainini;, one
was ()ccii[)i(.'d hy a latni/lelliis (iiiccii.

Of these ten (jiieens, all e,\ce|)t oiu; succeeiled in
r(>arini^ her brood as far as the cocoon stajj[(.'. Hut
from this stage onwards the colonies did not thrive
nearly so well in the tin domiciles as in the shallfjw.
earth -walletl domicik:s under the wooden covers.
Thie tin domiciles were not so sanitary, and another
tlrawhack was that they were so deep in th(; ^njund
that observ;uions could not be comfortably made.
l"he greater success of the tin domiciles than the
wooden-covered domiciles in attracting f[ueeps was
jirobably due to their being put down at a more
favourable time and in a more favourable place, for
in the following year (:7(/r iii/ra) they did not prove
so attractive to ciueens as the latter kind, which
would have been more successful in 1910 if the
seiison had not been abnormallv damp.

I'ntortunately many of my small tenants came to
grief; but, thanks to my being able fretiuently to
excUTiine the nests, the cause of failure was ascer-
:, lined in almost every case, and light was shed on
how humble-bees fall a prey to enemies and adverse
conditions. Moreover, my exjjerience in attending
to tlie nests enabled nie to watch in detail, step by
ste[), exactly how the queens proceed in nature to
estalilish their homes, and thus most oi the infor-
mation cdiout this given in tb.e Life- History was
obtai.ied. I [)aid as mucli atlentitui to mv protegees
as time permitted, and many oi them would have

\ 11

ATTRACTING QUI-I-NS

M

■■" saved UKl I ,„Kk.r.„„uJ b«,.r l„„v ., ,,„„,.,,
.l.cmM,u,,h..la,,H.rs.,,„l,ich,h.y „-,.,.. ,,,,,,,.;,

,t:" ""• '"*'"■"-' -"I 1'"= in,o practice uncii ,„„

•\s .1..: .|Me™ lu„„ble.b<.-c work, for nearlv a

.nomlM,, all wc.a,l,„s, .lying a, all .i„K. of th,. ;,av
fr..,n early morni,,,. „„,ii ,l,„k, I ,,ui,. ,x,,,.,,,,l a

'"• 1 -, „,.as«i u, r„K, ,„y f,,,, ,,,„„^, ;,^,,^,,,|;

.:«. ..r ,„ every case in .hid, a c|„een possessin,,

.rood ,.sapp.ared, except one, it .a. fLnd tha^

e ha deserted er nest because of sonK- accident

0 li.e broo<l. In.leed, humble-bee .,t,ee„s see.n to
.ear . charmed life, fndoubtedly they are avoided

h) the ntajoruy of insecfeedins birds and a.u'n.als
uh.ch must recognise them by their ntassive appear-'
ancethe.r striking colours, and. when ,lvi„.' bv
he,r loud peculiar hum. The scent of the -hundje'-
I'ee ,s d.shked by many animals, their instinct lead-
m them to ,lee from it : as may be seen, for instance

■lone presents a humble-bee to a d,,-.„.ho will turn
away m d.sgust, although he will readily s„,„, at
a tly. ^ ' at

Hut there i., no ch.arn, about th,- life „/ ,he
umble- ees brood, the eggs being vc-ry uu.ch

1 shed by ants^ and the lar>-,e and pupa- l,v ,ni,.e
■■"J shrews. .None of these .aKnu'es. so fa'r .as I

ave been able to observe, dares to att.a.k the brood
"hen the queen is in the nest. 1 lore, if „„, ,|„ee„

-hsturbed u, the leas,, she warns u,e foe witllou.l

:1

i

.1

i i

ii

li

Ml

1

I K)

IIII- lIUMUIJMn-I'

ani;ry l)u//cs, whiili arc kept up for soiiu; lime, and
it t'lirthcr alanncil sIk; will rush about ami inakr a
great hiss. In this connection it is interi'sting to
note that the nature: of thcMiueen is always to reniair,
at home, except when she is actually L;atlH;riiii; lood.
I'" veil it. tlirouLjh stress of weather, she is starving,
slu- remains sitting taithfully on her brood, cold and
lethargic, hut ready to wake up and bu/z shoulil
any intruiler a[)proach.

In three cases it was ascertained that the <iu(;e.n
deserted her nest Ijccause her t'lrst eggs were de-
vouretl by ants, the (^ttemlers being in two instances
the common black garden ant, Lasiiis nii^^cr, and in one
instance the large brown ant, Mynnicu ntbra. These
two species ot ants went very common, as was also
the yellow gartlcn am, I.asius j/avns, but this was
not observed to do any mischief. In all three cases
the eggs were eaten, and all hope of saving the
nest gone, before I noticed anything wrong ; but
in another nest under a wooden cover I had the
good fortune to discover the ants before they had
begun to attack the brood, and succeeded in pro-
tecting it from them, a good colony resulting. The
method I employed was first to destroy every ant
I could find in the nest and tunnel, and then to
make a shallow trench around the wooden cover
and entrance of the liole, pouring into the trench
a mixture of turpentine and paraffin oil, the strong
smell of which acted as a deterrent to the anrs.
Of course the smell gradually grew weaker, and I
renewed it five days later by pouring some more

AT'ikACTixG oui:i:ns

I I

I'.'raffln „il, vvl,i,:h .n-aporau^s less rapidiv than
turp.^ntmr. i„to th<.- tr.nch. lM,rth.,-r parriculars of
tins cas,; arc ^\v,..n on ,.. 229. l.'or readers who
■nay <-mpl(,y this rr.mecly, I may remark that it is
a.ivisahh: to apply the oil at ni-ht in order to give
H time to soak away hefon. the queen Hies a.^^afn,
because- contact with the iifjuid oil would kill her.

Tliis op(;ration retjuires too much attention to be
<^mp''^y^i merely as a precaution against ants, and
■t se.Miis that the only way to avoid th(. possibilitv
of destruction by ants is to place the n(;sts at a safe
distance from tlu; ants' nc^sts. Tnfortunatelv Las,,,s-
>uocr IS abundant almost everywhere, livmg in the
grnuud in small colonies, of which there is no indica-
fon on th(. surface. These colonies mostly dwell
"<-ar the surface, but 1 hav.,- found them at depths
extending to eight inches. One of my nests de-
stroyed by Lasins n(ocrv,i,^ in a tin domicile, which
being at a greater depth, and having a longer tunnel
ought, one would think, to have afforded greater
protection from ants than the wooden-covered nests
situated only j, • beneath the surface, and provided
with only a short hole. Ants are more active in
damp seasons than in dry ones, and in the dry
season of 191 1 none of my nests were destroyed by
them. Fortunately ants can do no harm to brood
sufficiently protected by bees, as is shown by the
fact that, later in the season, a colony of Lasius
>ngcr took up its abode under the wooden cover
>'t one of my strong colonies o{ iapidarius, and the
Lwo colonies lived for some time together, the ants

: ■
i

> I ■•

in J ;

iiS rili: IIUMHM'-MI'lv v„

(■vcntually tlis.iiipcariii^ uilhoiil liaviir^f liariiicd tlir

|IC(JS.

Several more of my nests cime to ^riel' llirmi^Ii
a siulileii ami mysterious destnietioii of tht- lirooil.
In three or four instances the brood was in an
ailvancetl staof, witln'n a few days of the emerL;cnc(;
ol the workers. I h( cocoons were torn open, and
the fraL;nuMits were scattered al»out tlie nest, which
was in a state of j^n-.u ilisonler. 1 nt^ver succeeded
in catchini,^ the assaihuits at work, l)ut I set traps in
two of iht: nests the day after the cocoons hatl been
rilled, haitini; them with the empty cocoons, and
caui^ht shrews which 1 have no douht were th<!
culprits, as these animals are insectivorous, ami
the hrooil ol a humble-bee wcnild make a daintv
meal for them. In ant)ther case I founil
tield-mouse (J//ts sy/iui/ifus) occupyinjj^ a nest fn
which the cocoons had disappeanxl.' Probably th
common house-mouse also eats tht; brood when it
can or^t a ch.mce. Field voles {.Irrno/ii (ions/is),
distin.i^uishable from the true mice by their shorter
tails, stouter botlies, and smaller eyes and ears, were
common in the neighbourhood of my nests, antl
were sometimes found occupying the em[)ty ones,
but there was no evidence that they attacked the
brood. Some of the nests had their material added
to, others were largely reconstructed, and I think
'lis must have been chietly the work of voles.

1 c.Ui;;..: L-nir'.bi.rati,' Cul. Ncunnu's >ialciiKnl, i|i!..ii.l \,y ILuwin, tli.-,-.
humlOc-bt.'., ne>i^ are more numcruus near -.hiall tt.wns than in tlic open
CMun'.ry. LiuiAe^i to \v !.rrau-.e the eat^ in town, keep ,Iiiun the field mice,
an'i tiiink th.-,t thi, imi-t be tlic ca-e only in pariienL-ir localities.

a

)m

e

ATrKACTixc; niff:(:\s ,,9

Tlir ii.'sts .I.:strf.y»:,l l,y the shrtnvs ami inic;
u.Tc pr..lni.sil,^. oiH.s, an.l I qiiickly set to work to
<l<-vis.- means l.. ex.l.ule these small mammals fn.in
the nests that they had not y<-t attacked. A shrew
is really a very small cn^atun^, and, althoi.^dT it looks
"1"' li I.TK'T than a humble-bee, its skel.'ton bein-
iternal. it can s,nie-ve throiieh almost as small an
ap'Tture as ,i que.m hiimble-l>ee, whose skeleton is
• •xternal an<l unyi.:ldin-. I tound by experim.nt
that a hifyidarin.s .pieen could comfortably pass
throu^di a s(|uan; wooden hole measurin,^^ .''. in. x
,',. in., and about ;• in. Ion- Init I had so" much
dilhculty in pullin- .-, small shnnv through it that I
-1" not think it could possibly have managed to
creep through by itself. Covers containintT holes
of these dimensions wen- therefore placed over all
my hpiiiarius nests. The cover consisted of a small
tin li.l with a Iart;e hole punched in the middle.
Over the hole were fi.xed two strips of wood, one
on either side of the hole, one of th(; strips bein-
fixed to the tin, and the other strip bein- connected
to the first strip by a pair of screws, which made it
possible to vary to a nicety the size of the aperture
between them, small blocks of wood of the width
ot the aperture required being placed between the
strips, inside the screws. These covers were pressed
into the ground over the mouths of the tunnels lead-
ing to the nests. The queens showed great intelli-
gence in (juickly recognising the holes in the covrs.
and seemed to enjoy passing through the narrow
apertures. Unfortunately the queens at first had ;i

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Wilti.iiliy in ohtainiiiu aci.ss to the holes from ihc
inside. .111(1 to this delen, which u.is afterwards put
riKlu hy tillin.i; the inside of th<- lid with ( l.iy, 1 owed
the loss of tluv.- moth.-rs of fmiilies. .\,, hrcxul was
injured or destroyed in th<- nests protected |,y these
mouse excluders, hut hy the time they Were placed
in position most of the nests had almost passed
throu-h the period of d.inir.-r, for I have never seen
a nest containin^r worktTs injured hy a mouse.

N'o doubt there ,ire other anim.ils that may
destroy the brood of th.- humble-bee. Slugs anil
millipedes .ire vet^c^t.ible feeders, ,,nd I have no
cvidcnci- that they diil .uiy direct harm to the brood
in my nests; indeed, I think they neve <-ntered the
n<-sts as lon^; as th(? hitter n-mamed lairly ilry.
liut the common centip(;de {Lithohnn) 1 re,!-arde'il
with considerable suspicion, for it is carnivorous,
and also very active. Several times I found th(;se
centipedes in the cavities containinj,^ n(.vsts occupied
by my cpieens, and once 1 saw one biting some
cocoons I had lifted out of a deserted nest and had
left lying on th(; ground for half an hour.

To the above causes of loss I must regretfully
add another— my own blundering.

It has been mentioned that the queens are liable
to forsake their nests if they are disturbed in them,
and that very little interference causes a (pieen to
desert her brood when it is young, but that after
the cocoons are spun she becomes more attached to
it. and when the workers are about to emerge only
a severe fright will cause her to abandon it. A

ATTKACTIXG (}ri:i;xs 121

fright, h..w,-v.T, will not Irad to (Icsrrtioii if the
quc.:n r.u, hr. k.-,.t (run l]yi„;^r. ami can l.r in-Iucnl
tr. s.rttl..- .l„wn a^Min to ch.-rish her hr-uul -not an
f.isy matter when tli.; hrood is very Voun-

' li-i'l I<Mrnt tlies.^ principles Ir.im' liu/exp..ri.-nce
"t Inr.ner y.-ars. and th.^y w< re carefnlly ohse-rved in
my nianipulations. I (u„nd th.- I,est time to open a
domicil,-. shonhl th.. ,|u.:.-n 1.,: at home, was at dusk,
for thef. she was disinclined to tly, and thoui^h she
miKdu !.«; much .-xcited she woul.l soon settl.'down.
•ind l.y mornin;,^ so far as one c..ul<l tell, she had
compl.-tely forj,r.,tten th.- incident. Hut 1 found it
in ulvisaMe an.I almost always unnecessarv to op.n
the domicil.- wh<-n the .juettn was at h..m'e. .Such
operations as destroying vermin, r(;newin.tr nest
material, and examining th.; hrood, were carri.-d
out in full daylight when the cpjecn was out. If a
queen ajjproach.-d while I was doing something to her
nest, I generally had time to put the nest hack and
close- d.nvn the cover before she alighted, but rather
than l..-t her enter the cavity while it was still open
and so discover, or even suspect, that her nest was
b-ing tampered with, I did not hesitate to frighten
Her off. although 1 often had considerable diftkulty
m doing so if the young were about to emerge. I
often had to wait .some time before seeing the queen
depart from her nest, and, being busy, I used to
ascertain if a (|ueen was at home or not by rapping
on the wooden cover, or, in the case of tin dumicilest
on the tin lid. If she was there she would buzz.
1 he rapping did not in any case cause desertion ;

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THE HUMBLE-BEE

vri

on the contrary, some of my queens became so
accustomed to frequent rapping that they f^iiled to
answer unless I knocked very hard. Rapping at
night, when the queen ought to be at home, was a
ready means of ascertaining if all was well.

Considering the frequency of my e.xaminations and
manipuhuions, and the various delicate operations
carried out for the first time, freedom from accident
could not have been expected. That the mishaps
were so few shows how well suited humble-bees are
to treatment, especially when it is remembered that
with manipulations on honey-bees smoke is always
used as a quieter. Smoke has no effect whatever
upon humble-bees.

Accidents sometimes resulted from the queen
staying from home for a day or two. Imagining
she had got lost, I removed the brood to save it,
and when the queen returned later, finding her brood
gone, she deserted.

I wo losses in tin domiciles were due to another
kind of blunder. Lifting out the nests and e.xamin-
ing them caused them to e.xpand so much that when
they were put back they practically filled the tins.
I he poor queens on returning home were unable to
find their brood in the disarranged mass of material
and, losing heart, deserte;d. The remedy, of course,
was to use less nest material or a larger tin.

Several incidents showed how careful one should
be, after making an examination, to leave the brood
in a position where it will be readily found by the
queen on her return to the nest. In the course of a

'^:c::*^':^\:^m^-

ATTRACTING QUEENS

12

week or two the nest subsides and adheres more or
less to the ground : when it is put back carelessly
into the cavity there may be a space left under it.
into which the queen on her return is very likely to
run. Here she may remain searching for'her brood
and fail to find it, though it be only just aioove her.
Inability m t,nd her brood soon after she enters the
nest fills a queen with excitement and fear, and
leads to desertion.

However much I might alter a nest or interfere
with the brood in the queen's absence, she seemed
never to notice it on her return nor to recognise the
smell of human hands. In two nests of lapidanns,
I opened the first cell of eggs to see how it was
constructed, but the queens on returning home
repaired the damage, and both nests developed into
colonies.

The weather was favourable almost every day up
to J-me 24, but from that date until the end of July
it was exceptionally cold and cloudy for the time of
year, favourable days being scarce and many days so
stormy that very little food could be gathered. At
the time the bad weather commenced most of the
(lueens were getting past outdoor work, and the
labour of providing food devolved upon the workers,
which in nearly all the nests proved unable to supply
the daily wants, so that I had to feed the little
colonies regularly to save them from perishing.

Occasional periods of semi-starvation, lasting for
a day or two, do no harm to a colony of humble-
bees : the bees simply become drowsy, remaining in

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THE HUMBLE-BEE

VII

a state ot suspended animation, until there comes a
fine morning with a rising temperature, when they
wake up and resume work with undiminished energy
But If starvation is long continued the comb grows
mouldy and bees and brood die.

Experiments with humble-bees in previous years
had elicited the interesting fact that feeding them
tends to make them lazy, although feeding ^honey-
bees^has no such effect. The reason may perhaps
be that the humble-bee worker, being less differenti-
ated from the queen than the honey-bee worker
iollows to some extent her mother's instinct of
ceasmg to work as soon as she finds food provided
1 o prevent my humble-bees from becoming la/y I
never commenced to feed a colony until it became
quite necessary, and then I fed it only in the evening
when the days work was done, except in bad cases,
wh.ch were fed also in the morning. In continu-
ously unfavourable weather I found that the colonies
that were well and regularly fed always did better
than those that were fed only occasionally.

I find two parts of honey mixed with one of
water makes a suitable food-or rather drink-for
humble-bees. But if this mixture is left unconsumed
trom day to day it soon sours, and I usually add to
>t some of the syrup I make for my honey-bees
because this contains a little naphthol-beta, a germi^
cidal drug which prevents fermentation.

The food is injected into the cells by means of a
bulb synnge such as is used for fillinir fountain pens
procurable from any stationer for .d. For occasional

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VII

ATTRACTING QUEHNS

125

feeding, the honey-pot or some of the empty cocoons
are filled ; but if a regular supply of food is likely
to be needed I find it much better to provide one or
two large artificial honey-pots, made of bees-wax
by dippmg several times into molten bees-wax the
rounded end of a wooden stick previously moistened
with water. The artificial pots need to have their
bases firmly fixed to a piece of sacking, or to a mat
of nest material by means of melted bees-wax
otherwise the bees will detach and capsize them.

In endeavouring to help on a struggling colony I
often gave it a few just-emerged workers from a
more prosperous one that could spare them.

The weather growing extremely ba... I found
that many of my colonies were losing workers
faster than they emerged from their cocoons
Despite all the feeding and attention I could give
them they failed to make progress. Some of the
colonies that had been fed irregularly were reduced
to three or four small lazy workers sitting wiih the
queen on a lump of mouldy, undersized cocoons
contaming diminutive pupa.- whose development was
being checked and delayed by repeated chills. It
was plain that such colonies were on the verge of
perishing, and that, even had the weather improved
at once, their survival would have been doubtfol and
their progress at best very slow, for the queen was
too worn to work much, and during the next three
vveeks only a fow puny bees could have emerged.
I^or a colony to prosper there must be a good work-
ing force of strong young bees, constantly reinforced

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THE HUMBLE-BEK

VII

by fresh ones emerging : this can only happen if
there is plenty of brood in all stages.

I found it possible to save these perishing colonies
by bringing them indoors, where I confined each
colony in a box and fed it liberally with honey and
also with pollen that I obtained from a honey-bees'
comb and placed in a special cell. This treatment,
contmued for about a fortnight in the case of the'
most impoverished colonies and for about a week
in those that were stronger, produced in every case
a wonderful improvement. The bees appeared to
take fresh heart, tending the brood with increased
zeal, so that the pup^e developed into bees without
any further delay ; the half-starved larvae rapidly
grew to full size, span their cocoons, and later on
developed into strong and vigorous workers ; the
queen also recommenced laying eggs. In short
prosperity returned, and the colonies when put back
into their domiciles were generally able, after a few
evenings' feeding, to support themselves. Moreover,
it was much easier for me to look after the colonies
indoors than in their respective domiciles. One
poor latrcincllHs queen and her young were nursed
back to life in this way from the last stage of ex-
haustion. I unexpectedly found her in one of my
nests when^ lifting the unoccupied ones as late as
July 2;. She was in a drowsy state and had a
little lump of brood, most of which proved to be
dead, and one drowsy worker. I gave them a
worker from another nest, and after about two
weeks' treatment they recovered.

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ATTRACTLXG QUEENS

12!

In some nests I tried a longer course of treat-
ment, but found that after about three weeks-
confinement, sometimes less, the colony ceased to
thrive, and signs of degeneration began to appear,
the larvae failing to grow to full size and delaying
to spm their cocoons. The particular cause of this
trouble was not ascertained, but it may be that the
larval food contains something that is gathered in
the fields besides honey and pollen, or that the
workers are unable to prepare this food properly
without exercise. It was noticed that a small colonv
throve better and longer in confinement than a
populous one. and that the pollen-storing species
lapidarius and tcrrcstris were less quicklv affected
than the pocket-maker, hitreillellus. A weak colony
ofsj'/varuw was confined twice with good results

In the domiciles occupied by lapidarius colonies
as soon as the workers became busy and the queens
ceased to fly I reduced the size of the hole in the
mouse-excluder so that it would also exclude the
parasite Psithyrus rupcstris. To deter wax-moth
and Brachycoma I relied upon balls of naphthaline
placing two or three of these in the grass close to
the mouth of the hole and eight or ten around the
wooden cover, but I found that these did not keep
out the little Phora ri/ripeniiis.

I was pleased to find that the loss of nests in my
artificial domiciles, though great, was, so far as I
could ascertain, much less than that which occurred
m nature. In the proximity of my domiciles I had
discovered five nests commencing in natural holes.

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12S

THE HUMBLE-HEr:

having in each case seen the queen tlying in and
out on several ch'fterent occasions. I-lach was of a
ditferent species — lapUariiis, tn-resiris, nuicralits,
hoyfonim, and latrcillcllus — and I was looking forward
with pleasure to digginfi; up the nests and transfer-
ring them to observation domiciles as soon as the
first workers appeared. Hut no workers were seen,
except in the case of the Icitrci/lclliis, and here when
I came to take the nest the queen was not to be
found.

The weather improved towards the end of July,
and in August nearly all my nests under wooden
covers developed into populous colonies.

The experiments were continued on a small scale
in 191 1. This season was in many ways the
antithesis of the two preceding ones, the weather
being continuously dry and warm, with the exception
of a short period of showers and coolness towards
the end of June, which, however, did not cause the
humble-bees any inconvenience. Unfortunately the
previous bad season had rendered queens less plenti-
ful than usual, and lapidarijis queens in particular
were scarcer than I had ever before remembered
them to be. Nine domiciles were made with Sladen
wooden covers : three of these were occupied, two
by lapidaritts and one by a latrcillcllus. Twenty-
two tin domiciles were made, but only three were
occupied, two by lapidarius and one by syharitm.
Twelve domiciles of terra-cotta, constructed on the
principle of the tin domicile, but with the diameter
at the bottom much larger than at the top, were also

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\ 11

ATTRACTING QUEKNS „,

lakl down : ,hrc. of these were occupied by /„/,M„.,„s

:t''r'"^''r-°"-'l"-icile. and. withon
an, .ud from n,e developed into colonies, al.hou.h

h e olon.es ,„ *e tin and ,erra.co„a domiciles did
no. flounsh so well as those un<ler the wooden covers
As already stated, no damage was done by an,
Ne,ther d,d m.ce or shrews destroy any nes.s. To
keep these ot,t, as soon as I saw a queen going in

h, "' f 'r"r'' ' P""^'' '"'° 'h<=Votmd arot, d
he mouth of the tunnel a tin cylinder about 5 inches
h tjh and 5 tnches in diameter, and open at bo h enlT
.se cyhnders, , believe, afford greater protection;
"■■h less nsk, than the mouse-excluderl used in
.9.0: also, they probably give a certain amount of
protecfon aga.ns, ants. The ,,„eens soon learnt to
riy in and out of them.

The fine dead grass used as nest material in 191 ,
was of , kmds bc-.h of them superior to and mo
-s,Iyobta,ned than that of :c,io. The better kind
vas scratched up by fowls which were confined to
a run which was moved once every day about a
pasture of fine grass in February, before' tile .
seasons growth had begun: this material had the
great advantage of being curly, and it required
->ttlep.ck.ng over and snipping up to prepare
■ /or use. The other kind was raked out of tufts
of fine grass m March and April.

Reviewing all my attempts at making domiciles
'or queens to occupy. 1 consider that much the most
prom.smg were those under the wooden covers, and

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130

THK HUMHLr-:-REn

VII

to readers who may like to repeat my experiments
and watch humble-bees starting their nests in their
gardens, I would recommend the construction in
April and May of domiciles with these covers, as
shown in Fig. 23. As long as the weather remains
fairly favourable the starting colonies will need no
attention, except perhaps the placing of cylinders
of tin over the mouths of the holes to protect
them from mice and shrews ; but if they are to be
tid 1 over a long-continued spell of unfavourable
weather in June or the early part of July, it will
be necessary to bring them indoors and feed them.

Of all the queens that started nesting in my
artificial underground domiciles during the three
years 1906, 1910, and 191 1, sixty-six per cent were
lapidarius, twelve per cent were latreillellus, six per
cent teryesfris, and four per cent of each of the fol-
lowing species — riidcratiis, hortomm, and syhuxruiu.
The great preponderance of lapidarius over the
other species was remarkable, the number of lapi-
datius being greater than all the rest put together ;
and though, no doubt, it was partly due to the fact
that lapidarius appears late, when natural holes
are overgrown, and therefore difficult to find, it is
probable that an artificial domicile is more to the
liking of lapidarius than of the other species.

GETTING QUEENS TO BREED IN CONFINEMENT

My first attempt at getting queens to start breed-
ing in confinement was made when I was a boy. I

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QUEENS I.\ CONFINEMENT

caught a /cnrsO'/s queen that was searching for a
nest, and confined her in a box in which I had placed
an art.fical nest, keeping her supplied with food.
She showed several signs of preparing for a family •
for instance, she would sit in the nest a good deal
and was careful not to soil it, and also she made a
great fuss when disturl^ed. But later these signs
disappeared, and she became restless.

I repeated the experiment with a good many
/.■rr../;v. queens : some gave the same result, others
took no interest whatever in the nest.

I next tried placing two /.m-./r./queens instead
of one m each box. With these I got much better
results, and many of them went so far as to lay eggs
AIthoi>gh the queens were often afraid of one another
when first put together, they soon became friendly
provided they were allowed to have sufficient room'
and the eggs were usually laid about a week after
confinement had commenced. But unfortunatelv
about the time that the eggs were laid, sometimes 'a
day or two before, sometimes a day or two after, one
of the queens always killed her companion. The
surviving queen at first paid every attention to her
brood, but within a week she alwavs deserted it
although I took the greatest care not to disturb her'
and supplied her with plenty of food, both honey
and pollen. In several cases, however, it was
ascertamed not only that the larvx^ had hatched
but that they had been fed by the queen, and had
begun to grow.

Hoping that the queen's affection for her brood

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THE humblf:-ree

VII

might have been maintained if I allowed her to Hy,
I made a hole in one of my boxes and placed it in
the garden. Eor several hours the queen showed
no inclination to leave her brood ; at last she took
wing, but though she marked the spot, she never
returned.

This was disappointing, and no further attempts
were made for some years— not, in fact, until 1910,
when a searching terrcstris queen having been
captured and induced to lay eggs by being confined
with another in the manner explained, two terrestris
workers were caught at flowers, and after having
been kept in a dark box for a few hours, were
placed with her. These workers soon became
attached to the brood, tending it as if it was their
own, with the result that the queen did not desert,
and the larva; grew, span their cocoons, and
developed into workers. In this way, therefore.
a colony was successfully established.

In the spring of 191 1 this experiment was re-
peated with six pairs of queens, and every case
proved successful. In some instances, litcorum
workers were supplied instead of terrestris workers.

I also succeeded in getting several queens to
start laying with only one worker as a companion,
and so the duelling and killing of queens was
avoided. But it v/as difficult to get the brood
reared properly without adding one or two more
workers.

In some cases I allowed the workers to ily after
they had settled down, but occasionally they got

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gUHEXS IN COXFINHMKNT i^^
lost, and as it was early in the season and worker
were scarce. I found it best to keep them confined
unt.I they were reinforced by the young workers
that emerged, feeding them regularly with honey
and po len. Letting them out. however, on fine
|lays always had a good effect, and when at
'ast they were numerous enough to be allowed
contuiuous liberty, the brood flourished and multi-
plied rajjidly.

The chief difficulty, indeed, in starting these
colonies was in finding sufficient /.;-..././, and
/uc.n.. workers for then. These workers do
not appear until June, and are not plentiful until
July. fortunately /enrs^r^s queens, unlike those
of any other species, continue to appear for five or
SIX weeks after the majority of the nests have been
■started, and may be found in numbers searching
'or nests throughout June and in the beginning
of Jul)-. *' *^

With the object of overcoming the difficulty in
obtammg workers. I tried to get a ^enrs^^s colonv
started with the workers of B. pratonun, which
appear earlier than those of any other species, and
may always be taken in plenty ou the flowers of the
white dead-nettle towards the end of May.

Two searching tcrrestris queens were caught
and confined together on .Mav 12. On May 4 I
mtroduced a pratonun worker into the nest On
^lav ,3 one of the queens killed the other, and
laid some eggs. The pratonun worker took no
notice of the eggs. On May 24 I gave two more

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pratortiiii workers. On M.iy 26 tlv (|ii((ii l.iitl more
«'j,'K's, aiul ihi- />riih>iiiiii workers reco^nisctl the
n(;st, hut showed ilissatistactioii with th(! coiul).
aiul sat apart hy themselves. ( )ii June; 2 the
([ueen still sat on her brood, hut the workers coii-
tiniictl to i<.,Miore rie l)rood, ami near it h,id con-
structed some waxen c( lis upon which they s t.
On June 10 the workers be^'an to pay .ttteiuioa
to the liunp of brood, to which, it turned out atter-
wards. they had about this time added some et;gs,
but they c.MUiiuietl to keep busy with their abortive
waxen cells, which now numberetl ei^du, .md were
of all sizes, the smallest no lartjer than ej,'i;-cells
and built on the rims of the largest ones. On
June J I two abnormally small ternstris workers
emerged ; they had evidently been half-starved in
the larval stage, the cocoons having been spun
many days late. On June 2\ two more dwarfeil
workers emerged. On July ; a pralorum male was
seen in the nest. On July i ;, the nest contained
eleven undersized terrcstris workers, two of the
original pratorum workers (one of these had died
or been killed), three pi atoruni males, and the
tcrrcstris queen. The brootl was not in a flourish-
ing condition, for it consisted only of two lots of
small larva,', but this was no doubt in great measure
due to the fact that the bees had been kept in con-
fuumient the whole time, a period of over seven
weeks.

Evidently the company of the pratonim workers
in the early stages of this nest encouraged the queen

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0U1:K\S in CONFINf-MHXT 135

to n-.ir hrr bn.-ul, although they were- of a strange
species, and gave her no assistance.

Hut the slow and laborious ()rocess of -< tiing
qiitjeiis to start bre.-<h"ng in confinement, whh the
assistance of only two or thre(; workers, greatly
handicaps them, and it is improbable that
'|"<''-"s so treated can ever become the mothers
of very populous colonies. To give; a (|ueen
caught in the fields the best possible start, she
should be shut up and fed until she becomes broody,
and then introduced into a de-queeneil nest of her
own species, in which the first workers have only
recently emerged. It do(;s not do to wait until
many workers have em<;rged, for then there is
great risk of the queen getting killed, even after
friendship has been established : by neglecting this
particular I have lost several valuable queens.

What proved to be my most populous colony
of lapidarius during the season of i(,io resulted
Irom putting two small clusters of cocoons and seven
large young workers with a searching queen. The
large family of workers that this cpieen produced
was chiefiy due to the fact that she was able to
proceed at once, while she still possessed the energy
ot youth, to continuous egg-laying in a prosperous
colony without the delays, and, more especially, the
e.xhausting labour, of gathering food, that are the
natural experiences of a queen.

It ought not to be difficult to introduce a (jueen
into the commencing nest of a strange species. We
have seen how in nature Psilhyrns queens are

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THE HUMBLE-BEE vn

allowed to enter and dwell in weak nests, not only
of the species upon which they naturally prey,
but of others. On June 22, 1910, I found a queen
of B. riidcratiis, that had lost the tip of one of her
antenna-, in a weak colony of />'. pratormn that I
had placed in a domicile under a wooden cover
in my garden. The pratoriim queen was also
in the nest, but she seemed feeble, and died the
next day. Unfortunately the rude rains queen dis-
appeared.

But whether a Bombtis ijuecn could be j;ot to
lay eggs in the nest of an unallied species I am at
present unable to say. If this were possible one
could easily rear colonies of rare species, and study
their habits from queens caught in the fields.

PLACING QUEENS IN EMPTY NESTS

The method of endeavouring to get a colony ot
humble-bees started that would occur to most people
would be to place a cpieen in an empty nest in the
hope that she would adopt it. Many times have
I tried this, always (excepting on the occasions
mentioned below) with the disappointing result
that the (|ueens tlew away and never returned.
When I was a boy I used often to catch a ciueen
and put her into a box containing a nest. Some-
times 1 fed her antl .Uiut her u|) for a day or two
before letting \\v.x out, and then I always noticed
that she circled around the spot marking it as she
tlew away, which seemed to show that she had some

:I

^imii^y.

w^^mm:i^-m.^

PLACING QUEENS IN NESTS 137

idea of returning. In the middle of June 1907,
when driving along a road near Sandwich, my
attention was arrested by about twenty la/yic/ayius
queens endeavouring to burrow into a grassy bank
faci'-.g north, the area of which was only about
thirty square yards. The opinion I formed of this
strange behaviour of so many queens was that they
had been hibernating in the bank and were en-
deavouring to return to their burrows in obedience
to a strong homing instinct.

On May 23, 1911, two ritdcratus queens that I
had kept together in captivity for four days managed
to escape through a hole in the bottom of my bee-
house. One of the queens was seen shortly after-
wards ende curing to burrow into the ground
close 10 this i.oie.

Encouraged by the t turn of this queen, I de-
termined to make a careful trial of placing queens
in empty nests. On May 30 I selected three of my
tcrrcstris queens that had been confined three or
four days, and at dusk placed them in three of my
underground domiciles, one in each domicile, after
having sketched in my note-book the shape ot the
lacerations on the edges of their wings so that I
should know each of them again. I had previously
placed a bees-wax cell full of diluted honey in each
of the nests. On June 2, at S.30 r..\i., I visited
each domicile, lifting off the cover and ta[)ping
lightly on the nest material, hardly expecting the
nests to be occupied. Two of the nests gave

no

answer, but my tapping on the third produced an

M'..^£t''SiEJm^.

^maL:i:^:^

I :

II

I'

I

if

> V

i

:-
i

< i I

138

THE HUMBLE-BEE

Vll

angry buzz and out rushed a terrcstris queen!
Next morning at 7.0 this queen was seen at the
mouth of her tunnel busily trying to bite off bits
of roots and grass and dragging all the loose pieces
she could find into the hole. Carefully regarding
her I saw that the indentations in her wings cor-
responded with those that I had sketched of the
queen that I had put into this nest five days
previously ; so there was no doubt about her
identity. I dropped bits of nest material and grass
roots close to her, but when she discovered these
she got alarmed, and spreading her wings she tlew
straight away, fortunately without seeing me. At
7.?,o r.M. she was again at home, and I noticed that
the nest material that I had dropped had been
drawn into the mouth of the tunnel, which was so
much choked with it that it was rendered quite
inconspicuous.

On June 17 I made an examination of the nest
and found that the honey-pot I had provided had
not been utilised, and that the nest had been made
in quite a different part of the nest-material. There
were nine cocoons, larger than usual for the first
batch, with some eggs on top of them and the
honey-pot close by.

On the same day. wishing to get a photograph
of a queen sitting on her brood, I selected this one,
and after catching her in my net I carried the nest
to a suitable spot for taking the picture. To make
a satisfactory exposure it was necessary for the
queen to sit still for about half-a-minute, and several

|l M I

PLACING QUEENS IN NESTS 139

attempts were ;i failure ; but a successful one was
finally made, and the result is shown in the frontis-
piece. During the long ordeal, which lasted two
hours, the queen took wing and Hew back to her
domicile four times. Each time I caught her in my
net, and on the last two occasions she was quite
pleased to find herself confmed therein, having
quickly learnt that this was the prelude to coming
back to her nest, and she showed great eagerness
to find her brood when she was placed on the
photographing table, knowing perfectly well that
it was there. Her coat was a little dustv, and she
allowed me to brush it clean with a cani'-d's hair
brush as she sat on the brood, just before her
picture was taken.

This nest eventually developed into a very
populous colony.

No doubt by taking various precautions, which
could be ascertained by experiment, in placing
queens in empty nests, the proportion of successes
could be much increased.

COMPLETE DOMESTICATION

A domestic animal is one that passes its whole
existence under the control of man. By controlling
the pairing of domestic animals many useful and
ornamental breeds of them have been produced.
The honey-bee is not completely domesticated, for
mating takes place in the air at some distance from
'.' e hive, and cannot be controlled in the ordinary

I

n

J
i

I ift

1P'
If'

140 THE HUMBLE-BEP: vu

way.' But the case of the humble-bee is somewhat
different, for although it is usual for the queen to
fly away from the nest to get fertilised, copulation
will, under certain conditions, take place in the
nest. indeed, the difficulty with humble-bees is
not so much in getting them to pair as in hiber-
nating them. But, from experiments that I have
made with Ji. lapidai-ius I feel convinced that both
pairing and hibernation can be accomplished under
human control.

On September 5, 19 10, I placed si,\ queens and
twelve males from my lapidariiis nests in a large
bo.\ covered wi'h wire-clcth, having four inches of
loose earth in tiie bottom. I gave them an artificial
Jlower consisting of a disc of red cloth tacked to the
top of a stick and surmounted with three beeswax
cups fastened to the cloth with melted beeswax.
These cups I filled night and morning with diluted
honey through the wire-cloth by means of my bulb
syringe, and the bees soon learnt to come to them.
On September S a-id 9 there was much copulating.
On the 9th, two holes in the earth, evidently where
(jueens had attempted to burrow, were observed.
On the loth two more holes were made in the
earth. But none of the queens buried themselves,
and as they continued in a very active and restless
state I let them all tly three days later.

On August 16, 191 1, the attempts were renewed,
and I confined ten cjueens in one very large box,

' I'ACc'pt iiy C'lluiit M'lectinii. Si'f my pallcr^ on \\\\- >iilijtct in tlie Ihitish
/it; Ji'iiriiiii, l)ti'i.iiiiior \')Ot).

if-il

VII COMPLETE DOMESTICATION 141

and six in a smaller one, with about double these
numbers of males, but instead of placing loose earth
in the bottom of the boxes I removed the bottoms
and stood the boxes on the ground in shady places.
In each box I placed a wire-cloth tray containing
moss. During the first five days I filled the artificial
flowers with diluted honey, morning and afternoon,
then I gradually reduced the supply, stopping it
altogether on August 27.

On September 5 I made an examination of the
large box containing the ten queens. None of the
queens had buried themselves in the moss as I had
hoped, but all (except two that died) had crept in
under the wire-cloth where they had fallen into a
stupor. I killed one and found that her honey-sac was
full of honey as in a hibernating queen. Unfortun-
ately all the queens woke up and Hew away, but if I
had not disturbed them there seemed to be no reason
why they should not have wintered successfully.

On September 9 four of the queens in the small
box were found to be dead. Another queen was
hibernating in the moss, for there was a low feeble
buzz when I touched the moss. But the next day
it was seen that this queen had crept out, no doubt
because she was disturbed. On September 18, at
6 P.M., a cold evening, I cautiously lifted the tray in
this box, and found the remaining queen in a torpid
condition underneath it. Unfortunately, on the
next day, this queen was also seen crawling about.
Evidently the least disturbance causes the queens
to evacuate their hiding-places.

If

Hi

M"

':='*_

r ■

t 1

142

THE HUMBLE-BEE

By controlling: breeding in the case of B. lapi-
dariiis, the yellow-banded variety of this species,
now so rare, could be easily established as a domestic
breed, and the yellow band broadened and bright-
ened. Also the British race could be crossed with
the more prolitic races found in Europe, with the
expectation that a breed would be obtained that
would produce a much larger number of workers,
a similar crossing having had this effect in the case
of the honey-bee. Possibly with controlled breeding
closely-allied species could be bred together and
interesting hybrids obtained.

VIII

HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE BRITISH
SPECIES

FKELIMINARY REMARKS

The humble-bees may be roughly known from
other bees by their stout build and their long,
thick clothing of hair.

The only solitary bees that could be mistaken
for them are their nearest allies, belonging to the
genus Anthophora, some of which are almost as
burly and hairy as humble-bees ; but in that genus
the hair is not so long, the cheeks are so short that
the mandibles appear to hinge immediately below
the eyes, and the third joint of the antennce is
funnel-shaped and at least three times as long as
the fourth joint. The female of Anthophora
pilipcs, one of the commonest of our wild bees in
spring, has often been mistaken for a small black
humble-bee. but, besides the above differences, the
dense clothing of stiff golden hairs all over the
outer side of her hind tibice distinguishes her at
once. The male of this species is clothed with
yellowish-brown hairs: he may be readily known

14J

I

144

THE HUMBLE-BEK

Vlll

> i

i

I i

' I

!

from a humble-bee by the yellow markings on the
skin of his face.

Certain two-winged llies of the genera Volucella
and Bomby lilts superllcially resemble the humble-
bees ; they may, however, be distinguished by the
absence of the hind pair of wings.

The first thing to do in examining a humble-bee
is to ascertain whether it is a queen, a worker, or a
male.

Notice the overlapping plates, or segments as
they are called, covering the upper side of the
abdomen. In the queen and worker there are six
of these, but in the male seven are exposed to
view. Concealed within the tip of the abdomen of
the queen and worker is the sting : instead of the
sting the male has a hard roundish organ about the
size of a mustard seed called the armature.

The antennce of the queen and worker have
only twelve joints, while those of the male have
thirteen, but this is a difference that is not so quickly
seen. The antenna; of the male are longer than
those of the worker and in some species than those
of the queen. In all humble-bees the first joint
of the antenna', called the scape, Is much longer
than any of the others, which collectively are called
the tlagellum.

The queens are larger .ind stouter than the males
and workers. In some species the male has yellow
bands which are faint or absent in the queen and
workers, but the worker is, as a rule, coloured exactly
like ilie queen. The queens are mostly seen in

ill!

- DISTINGUISHING THE SPrxiKS 145
spring while the workers and the males do not
begm to appear until the approach of summer.

I he skm of the humble-bee is black, so that all

tinttnnu

HEAD
THORAX

I'^Je^ment)

ABDOMEN

"flex of a6dorr,tn

i oceiji or simple eytt

l'^ Joint

cfypeus

manJiilt
or J aw

MALE

maxH/a

A- Head or

Armature or Male Queen

l-Ui. 25.--b;Mcr„al ..ii.uoniy of /lomhn ruJn::l,„.

colour is in the coat, but in some of the species the
leet are more or less testaceous.

The colour patterns of the coat on the upper
surface of the body differ more or less in each
spec.es. and generally afford the readiest means of
distmgu.shmg one species from another. Hut in

L

IP"^

M

I .- ■

111

In

f 3

If
f I

il

146

THE HUMHLK-HEK

some species they are liable to great variation, and
more confidence is to be put in differences in struc-
ture, which are perfectly trustworthy when sufficiently
great, although, unfortunately, they are not very
numerous nor conspicuous.

Some of the species differ from one another in
the length, in proportion to width of the head,
more particularly of the cheeks. In the males
important differences are often shown in the length
of the antenna', in the comparative lengths of the
3rd, 4th, and 3th joints of these, and in the shape
of the hind metatarsi.

Many of the most closely related species differ
in the quality of their coat ; thus the hairs may be
short or long, equal or unequal in length, dense or
thin, fine or coarse, erect or decumbent. In some
cases these diticrences are so slight as to be only
noticeable when combined with one another. When
the hairs are unequal in length the coat is said to
be uneven or shaggy.

On- can always tell lo what species or group of
species a male belongs by examining through a
lens the shape of the forceps and wands of the
genital armature. An outline drawing ct' the arma-
ture of each of the British species is given on
Plate \'I. In comparing specimens with these draw-
ings it must be borne in mind that the slightest
change in the position of the armature, or of its
parts, alters its outline, bringing fresh parts into
view and causing parts previously seen to disajjpear,
and also that the markings seen on the upper sur-

v.n DISTINGFIS IING THH SPF-CIKS 147

tac(- (»f the armature much .l(;[)end on the way that
the light falls on it, and are ol no particular import-
ance.

X'ariation in coat colour in a species consists
chielly in an increase or reduction of black, but in
a frw species the light colours may, to a slight
e Ment, encroach ipon or displace one another.
On the Continent dark and light varieties, often
separated geographically, of almost every species, are
to be found ; but in this country, except in the cases
o( Jioiiidiis Ui/era/us i\m\ Psttltynts caiiipcstris, which
are often black all over as the result of dimorphism,
thf range of variation in blackness is, .is a rule,
small, uul some species scarcely show any at all.

Examination of scries of specimens of the different
species shows that the darkenin^r jrenerall)- extends h\-
black areas encroaching; upon the yellow, red, or uhi:
ones, but there is often more or less niin-ilinj,' of the
black hairs with the li^'hter ones, the latter, at the same
time, losin-i their bri.Ljhtness : in some few cases, liov\ -ver,
the pale hairs gradually (jec[)en without any admixture
of black hairs. It depends upon the species to what
extent and in what parts of t!ie body any of these pro-
cesses takes place. In the ([ueens of /.'. tcrrcstrisW is the
yellow band on the thorax that is most likely to be
rciiuccd or effaced, while in />. pnitoruiu it is the \ cilow
bam! on the abdomen. In />. /. /f',r,uius the thorax
chirkens by a minglin- of black h.ms and the abdomen
by a deepenin^^ of yellow and brown. \'ellow bands
usually divide in the miiidlc, or jjrow in tow, as tli'-'y
darken ; in many species hey do botli.

In the descriptions of the spccit^s that are to
follow, it has been found convenient to speak of

I4S

'nil' iiiiMiiLi;-Hi:i-:

^ III

" Ii,L,'lu s|K'ciimMis " ami "dark s|i(cimi'iis " of many
of the species, hut these <'xi)nssi()iis must not \n:
taken too h'terally, lor iruhviduals an- sometimes
louiiil in whiih the iles/ree of melanism is "rreater
in one part of the luuly th.ui in another part.

I"'it: Jifhrulty in naminjj; specimens from tin;
colo'ir-patterns of lIuMr coats is increased hy tin;
fact that certain species resi-ml)le one another very
closi-Iy. But careful insjiection gent.-rally reveals at
least sli<,'ht tlifferences in the extent and tint of the
colours, anil in their manner of encroaching upon
one another.'

Another source of jjcrplexity to the hej,Mnner
arises from the liability of the colours to fade and
bleach from lonj,' e.xposure to sunlight, bright red
changing to rust-red. and orange, yellow, and white
to pah; brown or dingy white : black even loses

' An iiiiporl.im f.ii-tnt in tlic vari.itinn in llic Cual i-nlour nl llu- lumililcln-i-s
IS rrL;ion.il cnMVi.rj;eiu-e, nami'ly, llic U-mkncy of diULTem s|iccii'» tn slmw a
larallcl v.iriation in tlic ^.inie ri'Hi..n. Tlius liritain i> williin a Lirj^t rrniun
nfnulaiiisMi, i-Mi'ijilint: iiitci the Alps Inil ii..| inli> the I'yri'ni't-s. which shows
itstlfni(>st-ti..n|;:j in Schli-swij;-! loUtcin, Dciiniark, ari.l Smiihcrn Scandinavia,
.-.n.l is more matkeil in Ihc suiith of Ijii^laml than in Scotlaml ami Ireland!
Another Uindot'rf;;ional converi^cncc is seen in A. />;;</, vrw/;/, which, in Shetland
and Norway, chant;es to fnlvoui ahovc and hlacl iiiiderneaih in sympathy
with a similar coloiuing of two other s|iecie,N a^toiiiin and /i,!/,r[iiiiis, in
Norway. A reninrkable instance of c..nverj;ence i, found in the Caucasian
Mountains where the yellow hands of most of llie species liecome while. In
connection with these ca-es it i^ interesting- to note that nio-,t of the North
American Bombi conform to a particular colour scheme, namely. .t;reeiii>li-
yelluw, with a black tail and usually a black band on the thora\.

.\ further feature in the variation of hund)le-bces. not very noticeable within
the limits of the I'nited Kinj^dom, is that the <|ueens as a rule show (greater
variation than the males; in cerl.iin rej;ions the queens of certain species
aojuire a peculiar coloration while their males show little or no change from
the type.

See lir. O. \'oi;t^ recent work on variation in Kuropean and Western AMntic
humble-bees, .SliiUien iiiv, ,,\,s .-Vy //;././,■//,, - C /., ,- ,/„, / ■aruei,;, ,/, ,■ J/„,iiti„,ii,
lierlin, I'art I. 1909, and I'art II. lyil.

;j:*r*JL^i:*er. '^.-^w^.fmL- . .^iifiar,-:^;^ w

VM, DISTINC.UISIIING THK SIMXIHS .49

som*.- of its intensity and ultimately becomes shabby
brown. Such fading must be allowed for in naminj^r
specim<!ns from the descriptions j^iven. Much
exposed specimens are generally weather-beaten,
and ih.m they may be recognised by the lacerated
tips of their wings and their shaggy, partly-rubbed-
off coats. Occasion.illy. however, sptximens are
met with in which the colours have failed to attain
their full brightness owing to their having been
chilled and starved before leavinir the nest

Abnormal specimens having their coats tinged
with brown (due to prolonged chill in the pupal
stage), or showing irregular patches of white (due
to injury during the larval or pupal stages), or with
v(;ry short coats, are occasionally found. Dwarfed
specimens of each of the se.xcsare not rare, and giant
males of the PsitJiyri are now and then met with :
the collector must, therefore, not be surprised if he
occasionally takes a specimen that does not conform
to the dimensions given.

Among the humble-bees there are several in-
stances of two forms so closely related to one
another that many entomologists have regarded
them merely as races of the same species. In the
British fauna there are four such couples, li. tcr-
rcstris and /itcoruhi, /?. nidcrattis and Itorionini,
B. latrcilU'lliis and distingncmius, and Ps. vcstalis
and distiuclns. In each case the first- mentioned
form is more plentiful in the south and less so
in the north than its fellow. The southern form
has a shorter coat, is darker, lives in larger com-

1
It a

I50

THE HUMBLE-BEE

M J I ?

munities. ami, in three of the cases, is of a larger
size than the northern form.

The relationship between B. tcrrrstris and B.
/iicoritm, and that between B. riideratus and />.
liorlorum are closer than in the cases of the other
two couples ; but although these four forms are
abundant over the greater part of the kingdom,
living side by side, tcrratris rarely if ever inter-
breeds with /uiontiii, and rudcratus with hortontiii,
tor intermediate specimens are seldom found, and
I have never known both forms to be [)roduced \)\
the same queen. In each case there is evidently
a barrier between the two forms that does not
exist ; for instance, between the linglish and Italian
races of the honey-be-e which, when brought to-
gether, cross freelv, and it seems best to resiard
them as distinct but closely-allied species.

Between a slight differentiation, such as that which
separates B. tcrrcstris from B. Imonivi, and the
deep divisions that part well-marked species, all
degrees of relationship occur. B. latnillcl/us and
/)'. distntoHcndiis are almost as closely related to
one another as tcrrcstris and /ticoruiii ; the differ-
ences betwetMi /)'. pratoruDi, B. joml/its, and />'.
lappoituui ;ire slii^htly deeper, .uid those between
B. dcrluDiu'lliis anil B. sylzariim deeper still : in
the last case decideil differences in tht^ shape of
the armature appear for the first time

In Siietland, large-sized varieties of />'. Joncl/ns
and /)'. iiiiiMoniiii, having the coat longer anti more
deeply coloured than it is in the m.iinland forms,

:ili

v.M DISTINGUISHING THE SPKCIES 151

occur. . se cannot be regarded as anything
more th;M geographical varieties, because inter-
mediate examples are to be found in Orkney, al-
though speculation as to their being species in the
making is permissible and interesting.

All the British species of Bombtts are found in
Central Europe and ten species besides, si.\ of
which are alpine. All the British species of
Psithyrits also occur there and one besides.

The last revision of the British nonibi and
Psif/iyri was made by Saunders in his Hymctiof^lera
Aculcata of the Ihitish /.v/^/«<A-, published in 1896.
The only alterations in the British list of species I
am here making is the reinstatement as species of
the three forms, B. Incoruiii, Ji. nidcratiis, and
/>'. distini^ntcndiis, previously recognised as distinct
by Smith, the addition of Psilliyrns disdnctiis, and
the changing of the names B. vcnustits and
B. imitliiantis to lie/fcratnts and iiiusconnu re-
spectively, as the result of the clearing up of the
confusion between these two species.

I"'or each of the species of Bomdiis suitable
English names have been chosen in the hope that
they will be of assistance to young students.

1

1

.1

152

THE HUMHLH-HHK

H

s.

TAHLK OF TIIK BRITISH Sl'IX'IKS

Genus BOMBUS

rOM.KX-STORKRS

Stone Humble-hec.
I. arm; liaitli Hiinihle-hcL-.
Small Karth Humble bee.
Ilfraiombe Hiiinljle bee.
Early-nestinfi Humble-bee.
Heath Humble-bee.
Mountain Huml)le bee.
Cullum's Humble bee.

rO('KKT-M.\KKRS

rolhil-Piiiih'ls

w.

lapidarius .

li.

terrcstris

]!.

lucorum

15.

soroensw

]!.

jiratorum

]{.

jonellus

|{.

lapponicus .

li.

eullumanus .

riideratus
liortoium
latreillellus .
disiintjtiendus

Lari:e C.arden Humble-bee.
Small (Jarden Himihle bee.
Short haired Humble bee.
(;re;n Yellow Humble-bee.

.

I .V n. derhaniellus

14. 1!. sylvaiiim

15. 11. a^rorum

16. ]!. helleranus .
I 7. I>. mus( orum .

Ca/ch )■-/!, es

Red-shanked Carder-bee.
Shrill Carder-bee.
("iinimoii Carder bei'.
Ikown branded Carder Inc.
l.ar-i- (\uder l)ee.

DOUl'.riUl. liRllISH SI'F.CH'.S
I!, pomorum . . .\].n!e Humble bee.

■iJ

Oenus PSITHYRUS

I's. ru['e>!riv

's. V. I.lli-,

's. distiiiitus

's. barlnitelhis

'^. '•,'■])], cstrii .

's. iju.idrii <ilor .

breeds in nest of li. l,i|)jdarii:-

.< 1). lerrestris.

,. li. Uii'orum.

li. horliiruin.

,. li. "..urorum.

.1 1>. pratdruni.

! lackric

llur.

iitiii:

GHNUs noMnrs

'5.>

GENUS BOMBUS, Latreille.

I have divided the British Bonibi into two main
sections, the Pollen - storers, consistin*,^ of ei^ht
species' which store the pollen in cells d(.-tach(;d
from the clusters of larva-, and the Pocket-makers,
consisting of nine species which place the polh^n in
cells attached to the clusters of larva- ; and 1 ha\ e
subdivided the Pocket - makers into the Pollen-
primers, comprising four large long-tongued species
that lay their eggs in cells primed with pollen and
dwell under the ground, and the Carder-bees, com-
prising five small species that dwell, as a rule, on the
surface of the ground, lay shorter and round'-r c^-s
than the other species, and. in the mali-. ha\c the
joints of th»- antenna- swollen behind.

l'"or the characters distinguishing /n'w/.v frum
/'.>,'///r.'7/,v sec p. :>o^.

111-'. ) !■; |.i;;il, nre \\\^\..

Ml i A.

l\

'54

THi- [iiMi!Li:-i{i;i{

mill

;1

H'i.

MU 1 IMi Ml-.

/O Z\0 ~5

1 -i r-

' Ill

ilil

il

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Ft if j •?

T- - 'I:

Ski ri-N I. — /',;//,//-, A. ;vr..
1. BOMBUS LAPIDAEIUS. I.inni ii^

■"-■'•AV lluinlilr \,rv.

' 'li:i:n. - I.a

.ar,;e . :(:-i^tli jo-jj mm., (•xjmiimj ■ --
40 i:m;;, Sh.iin- , .f al:.i.,::u'n >wineuli.it c;.,;w,a(:.

Black, with the three last segments of the abdomen bnght
red. Hairs of the corbicula entirely black,

OcciMuiKilIy thoic is ,i iMrn.w LTrcyisll-vri:. ,u bar;.; .,-,
tlu- tiMiit . f the tr,.,r,i\, ur a trace ..f it.

Uk- e.Mt i. r;itlicr <iii.rt. deiKo, ami n:ie.
Wings clear.

\\"KKI K. - I.eiif^th I i-r-^ i:!;n.
Oiiiy diiier. tVom the :ueen :;i -i/e.

^'^^'— I--^th ,4-.- ..n., ..x,a... .--,0 mm
.■U)d. >:iie!i rathier eldii^ate.

Ilea,! black. u,th the uce ^uh:huT-yc:: ,,. . Thorax
bluck, with a siUphiir- yellow band in front ap.' i ■ n ■ -'i
Marr,.uer o-.e f„ hr.i. the i.itter ...cixTaliy n ,:i.oe.i ; TtVu-
l'.':rs ,m,l M^metitTK- absent. Abdomen black, with the four
last segments bright red. a-: i u itli s..ir,etimes ,. little -iih.hi ■--
>-ch.>A ..„ th.' (st se-me:!t.

Antennae very short— len.^th. t'

Armature (.h-ti-ct.

■ 1 ,;•.;,. mn

i nis Is til" only coiiiiimn mtcu-s m whurh th^'
'iy^'"'' ;^"^' ''-'^^■■- ^^^' I'l.'ck vv:th .1 re,J : .! .;xc.:,,t
/■' r^i'/„,;//.r.';'v-. which i< c.is.u- .nstMi-ui.ii- a hv ih-
rvd h.iirs ut' the corbiciil.i, an..i /h././vr.v , ■ ,v,.'^,'..'r.-.,
uhuh max 1h. kn.nvn I v u, bp ,vv n uu--. M.^ro

VI II

nOMIU'S LAPIDAKII S

'55

^':r!tr;i! ai;']

over, th(; xv\\ in fresh specimens of la/m/aniis i-,
l)rij^rlne'r than in any other species except j! /,i/'/)oiii-
cKs, the mountain bee, makinj^ it one of ih'- moM
handsome of our native insects.

/>'. lapidiirim is ahuntlant in I-'ni^l.m'l, hut !<•,•,
common in ScotlanJ, and it is ncjt tmjnd in the north
of Scotland, thout^h of late vears it ha, h':'o:;,e
tolerably common in Orkne-y. It is common in
many parts of Ireland. It e.xtends ..'.ro.s l-:i;rope
into .\sia, but it is not found in t
northern parts of .Scandinavia.

( )n th(> Kentish coast, in avera'^-- s'-.-.^o-
(]ueens do not l)e(;in to emer;,^,; {,-. ,rn t:.e:r u
([uarters until ab(Hit the middle of .M;:v, :-.r.':
continue appearin- until the mi'ld',.- .,f [ .n'-.

The usual position of the n'-^t i. jr.'j'r
ground: and the tunnel is ^er.'ra'.iv \"-.
inches to 2 feet long, but sonietinies it ';.■;•.'■.'
3 feet, and in one nest I dug up it uas o'.er -
I have never found an unsheltered :.'-.: -. •.
ground, but a favourite jjlace i-, in tr.e- v. ;; '• •
and outhouses, often at a con-:r.»T:iL>; he ih: t
the ground. 'I'hi: name lafvidrw. v..-., „:•,.•;
this species on account of its h.a'it of ne-t;- -.- .
large stones, a position that \\(yS.<\ '; /m>:-. . •
its taste in a rocky coiuitr\-.

-V large number of uc^rk- rs are ;-','■-'.'-'
comb has a particularlv n'-ai ar.d ',lear. :.; •••.-^r.

The

cocoons arc. pale \ei.ou

The

lighter brown than that of .ii;\- oih' r
it is almost yellow : it i,, ^'^lAv.'A '•:.

■r i;.

t '-4

W iiifll

il^

:! v IS

ilii ''i'

'56 THK IIUMBLF:-HF.r: v.u

and the bees work it skilfully into thin sheets and
cells.

This species is one of the best and most interest-
in- to study. Anionjr its favourite llowers are
sycamore, sainfoin, birds-foot trefoil {Lo/ns cornicu.
/a/us), and the knap-weeds {CcUauna sca/uosa and
"{i:ra). It is also fond of many of the Howers
fre(iuented by honey-be(;s.

I'lie variety of tiie queen having a tjreyish-
yellow band on tlie front of the thora.x is'rare in
Britain. Smith saw only a single specimen taken
near Samlwich, Kent, and for twenty years I
have never noticed it. During the cold season of
HMO. how(;ver. s.'veral undersi/ed workers from
larva- that had hem starv.'d and chilled during the
early part of their existence developed a prominent
•'and.' In the following year (iqi i) the band was
to be seen faintly in a numb.-r of normal specimens.
In one nest taken, the que.-n and nearly all her
workers showed it more or less, and in five out of
fi " t nests traces of it were to be seen in some of
tl workers. In July 1911a wdl-developed worker,
ing a very perf,_-ct band, was s.mt me by Mr.
llison from .Stromness, Orkney, tog.-ther with
■-.nc -lueens. one of which showed faint traces of a
^^^\. I he variation seems to b(.- favoured bv in-
clement weather. When the baud is verv faint \\ can
only be seen by looking at th.^ specimen from in front
and it is interrupt.'d in th(; middle. X'ery faintly-

ii L.i<- uai. k 1 .1 I lie tli' Fi , >.,.

iinii.

BOMBUS LAPIDARIUS

'd7

banded specimens are probably to be found in many
places. I took one at Cobham, Surrey, in 191 1.

The male corresponding to the banded queen
has a yellow band on the back as well as on the
front of the thorax, and the ist segment of the
abdomen yellow. Queens banded with bright
yellow like this male are to be found in the Pyrenees
and in Italy.

A number of impregnated lapidarius queens
from England that I was asked to supply were
set free near Christchurch, \ew Zealand, in 1906
and 1907, but Dr. Hilgendorf, of the Canter-
bury Agricultural College, informs me that up to
November 191 1 no specimens have been seen
tlying : so the attempted introduction of this species
into Xevv Zealand is probably a failure.

Bonihiis iiiash-Kca/its, Gerst., is an interesting
species related to Ji. lapidan'its, occurring in the
Alps and Pyrenees at altitudes ranging from 3000
to 7000 feet. It is very like B. Inpidaritts in colour-
ing, but it is slightly larger, the coat is long and
shaggy, and the mandibles are toothed. In the
armature the forceps are shaped much as in /<///-
(iariits, but the wands are like those of B. piiitonm:.

il

«58

1 III". HUMHLH-HKi:

:

m

\ III

2. BOMBUS TERRESTRIS. Li.iii.Liis.
I-trj,'e Kartli Hunihlclicc.
Synonym ; -virginalig (Kirhy , a( corilinx t.i Smith.

QcKKN.^har-c ; Icii-th 20-22 mm., expanse 40-4-'
mm.

Black, with a band of deep yellow across the front of the
thorax and atiothor on the 2nd segment of tlic alxiomcii, aiui
with the tail tawny, the zone of this colour usuallv com-
incncinj,' on the 4tli sc^mient, near its ed-e.

Dark specimens have the yellow baiul on the thorax
narrow and dusky or absent, and often the yellow hand
on the abdomen brownish.

\VoKKi:i<. — Lenijth M-17 nnn.

Resembles the queen, but the tail is white or tawn>-whitc.
aluavs, howc\,;r, shading into tawny at its extreme base.

•Mali;.— Len-th 14-10 mm., expanse .^o-.^ ^ mm.

Black, with a yellow band across the front of the thorax
a yellow band on the 2nd segment of the abdomen, an.l tlu'
tail tawny-white, the zone of this colour usuallv cmmen-
cini; on the 4th si-inent.

Antenn.e short ; len-th of (l.r^elhini 5 mm.

Armature almost exactly like that of A. huonini.

I po,,c., a s|„,, i„„.„ (,(„„ K,|,|,i^., ,„ „],„ I, ,j,,. ,^,| 1^ ,,.^^^ j^

In Knglaiul ihi.s (in.- hunil)lc-hce is proluhly more
al)inulant than any other specH's, I.ut in .ScotJaml
ami the north of Inland it i.s ..Litnuml.c-red hy
/'■. huorun:, and I know o\ 11, , .specimens fron'i
Orkney or Shetl.iiid.

Al.ro.i.i it h,,^ ,, u-idt' .,':>tril)ution, e.\t( luh'nL; over
ahnosi th, uli,,io of l-iu-opo .m.! soiuhwanis U) ihr
north oust o: .\h:,.., vvher.' it hreods in tlie winter
'^^^^\ sle.-p.s in til.- sun'.mer. h Ji^s .d.so Imtii acJi

PLATE I.

Bombus terrestris.

Bombus lucorum.

Bombus lapMarius.

Bombus soroensis.

ALL WILKAL SI/1

Ilillll

11

^Zf'T

, • in

I' I
■111,

Mil

liOMli I S TERR US TR/S

'59

matizcd in Australia and New Zealand. Over the
fjrcater i)art of Kurope the tail is white like that of
luconiui. In Corsica the yellow hands are absent
antl the tail ami Iejj[s nrd in the queen and worker
(var. xanthopiis). In a variety found in the Canary
Islands (var. uinariitius. Per.) the yellow l.antis are
also absent but the tail is white.

.\llhough the earliest (jueens are amon^' the first
humble-bees to appear in the spring', the niajorit\ of
the nests are not start<'d until .May. The nest is
almost always under the j^rountl, a Ion-,' hole beiu'^
preterred. The cocoons are only loosedy connect d
to one another, the clusters being indistinct. Not
many workers .ire reared by the queen in the first
b.ilch. but ultimately the worker population i^encrallv
e.xceeds two himdreil. The workers .ire most ener-
y;etic anil particularly industrious in L;atherin"-
|K)llen : they defeiul the nest bravely when it is
disturbed, hovt-riuL; around it for some tinu,- rtMclv
to sling anything that approaches. The oKl (jueen,
alter she has laid many eggs, lr)ses the greater part
of hi.'r hair. The \va.\ is dark brown.

This specii'S lre(|ueius maii\ of the same kinds of
flowers as />'. hipidariia \ the workers are also fond
of the flowers of tiu! blackberry, the numerous
stamens in which seem to irritate them, for thcv
shake their wings ami bii// imp.itiently as thc\ riflt;
each blossom.

I,* f

MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART

(ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2l

1.0

I.I

1.25

If 1^ IIIIM
IS ^ IIIIIM
I ^ IIIIIM

1.4

1.8

1.6

^ /APPLIED INA^GE Inc

^^ 1653 East Wa:n S-'ee*

— ^ flocnestc, Ne* ^o". "i609 uSA

JS (716) 48.- ■ 0300 - P^o'^e

as (716) 288 - 5989 - Fa.

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lillilii

uin I:

i6o THE HUMBLE-BEE

3. BOMBUS LUCORUM, Linn.xus.
Small L^arth Hunihlc-bee.

Closely related to B. tcrrestris.

Ol'EKN. — Slightly smaller than tow^/m- ; length 19-20
mm,, expanse 36-39 mm.

Resembles tcnrstris, but the yellow bands are of a lemon
tint and the tail is white. Tlic jellow bands are less
inclined to melanism than in the case of tcrrestris.

VVorki:k. — Length 11- 17 mm.

Differs from the queen only in size. Distinguishable
from tnrcstris worker by the pure white tail.

M.-\I,E. — Length 14-16 mm., expanse 30-33 mm.

The colouring may be described as that of tcrrestris,
with the yellow paler and more widespread, and with tlie
tail pure white instead of tawny-white.

Hairs on the face and on the top of the head lemon-
yellow. Thorax with a broad lemon-yellow band in front,
and a narrower, more or less indefinite band of the same
colour or of whitish behind, the space between the bands
being black, more or lc:,s suffused with white or lemon.
The abdomen in the majority of specimens has the 1st
and 2nd .segments lemon-yellow, with the 3rd and part of
the .jth segments black, but in the yellowest specimens
the first four .segments are lemon-yellow, with only a black
band on the 4th segment ; the white of the tail, which
usually commences on the 4th segment, shows no tendency
to tawniness.

The black hairs are often mixed with white or whitc-
tipped hairs, and there arc sometimes narrow white bands
on the 3rd and 4th segments.

Dark specimens are coloured almost like tcrrestris,
but the tail remains pure white.

The coat is longer and less even than in tcrrestris.

Antenuiu short as in tcrrestris ; length of flagcllum
5 mm.

Armature almost identical with that of tcrrestris.

vii:

BO MB US LUCORUM

i6i

/)'. /iiconim is common over almost the entire
kingdom, and is especially abundant in the north,
but there is no record of it from Shetland. In
the north of Scotland and the Orkney Islands the
queens are as large as those of tcrintris. This is
the variety iiiagnus of V^ogt.

Specimens intermediate between tcrrcstris and
lucorujii are occasionally met with ; probably most
of these are hybrids.

The queens appear in April and May, and the
colonies are established and mature earlier than the
majority of those of tcrrestris. The nests are
almost always under the ground, generally with a
shorter tunnel than those of tcrrestris. I once
found a nest on the surface under a box, and another
in a stack of straw. The workers number 200 and
more in populous nests ; they are milder tempered
than those of tcrrestris and seldom attack the dis-
turber. The comb resembles that of tcrrestris.
As the queen grows old, unlike the tcrrestris queen,
she loses very little of her hair.

The differentiation between tcrrestris and liico-
rum is maintained on the Continent, where Inconmi
is found more abundantly in the north and in
mountains.

M

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I If

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: t f 1 I

«| 111

sin!:

162 THE humble-bp:e

4. BOMBUS SOROENSIS, Fabricius.

Ilfracoinhc Humble-bee.

Ql'EEX. — Small; length 15-17 mm., cxpan.sc 3S-32
mm.

15ritish specimens arc coloured very like iHConiiii, but
they may be known by their much smaller size and by the
shape of the yellow band on the 2nd segment of the abdomen,
which is either interrupted in the middle or extends on to
the sides of the 1st segment.

The following additional characters, thoui;h less notice
able, will help to confirm identification : —

The colour of the hairs on the 6th segment and of
those fringing the last three ventral segments is largely
reddish-golden ; in liiconiin there is little or no tendency
to this colour. The white of the tail is inclined to be
dingy, and is som.etimes tinged at the base and sides with
red. As in pratonun, the tint of the yellow band on tlie
thorax is slightly deeper than that of the yellow band on
the abdomen. The coat is shorter and more decumbent
than in luconiiii, and somewhat shorter and more even
than in pmtoriiiit ; it is somewhat less dense on the
middle of the ist segment, and also on the middle of the
2nd segment, at the base, than in liicoriuii. The head and
cheeks are slightl>- narrower in proportion to their length
than in lucontin. Last ventral segment less compressed
than in luconini. Inner side of auricle not hairy.

In every British specimen I have examined there is a
minute testaceous spot on the corbicula near tiic limen.

Worker. — Length 10-14 "im-

Resembles the queen except in size. In most British
specimens the tail is entireh' white, but some ha\c it
tinged with reel at tlie base.

M.VLE. — Length 12-14 mm., oxpan^^c 25-28 mm.
The colouring is rather like that of Incorniii ok pratoniiii,
but the face and top of the head arc black with little

•^^^i'':^^^^^^^ 'mwfmm.

VIII

BOMBUS SOROENSIS

l6:

or no trace of yellow. Thorax black, with a yellow
band in front. Abdomen black, with the 1st and 2nd
•segments yellow, but usually some black at the base of
the 1st segment, and with the taU colour, which commences
on the 4th segment, sometimes entirely white, but often
white with red at the base, or rcil grading into white at the
tip.

The hind metatarsi are slender and taper gradually towards
the base, where they are very slender. B>- this character the
male cjf soro'aisis ma)-
be easily known, the /^
metatarsi being approxi-
mately parallel-sided up
to within a short dis-
tance of the base in all
the other species ex-
cept fjnrstris, lucoruin,
and CHllnmtuuts: in these
three the metatarsi are
wider, and are fringed
with shorter hairs than
in soroaisis.

Antenna; with the
3rd joint shorter than the 4th ; in tenrstris and lucoruin
the 3rd joint is longer than the 4th. Length of flagellum
5.^, mm., thus slightl>- longer than in terrcstns, lucoruui,
and pi-atoruiii.

Armature distinct.

In Britain B. soroaisis is local and often rare.
The workers were taken abundantly at Ilfracombe
on bramble blossom by the late lulward Saunders.
1 he queens have been found in considerable num-
b ;rs by Mr. E. B. Nevinson at Abersoch, on the
south coast of Carnarvonshire, at the flowers of the
raspberry in the beginning of June. .Mr. Nevinson
has also taken it at Criccieth, Bude, and in

;. 2''. — Hind nK'l.U.irsusof |i,Mcr/v,(,'^/;an(l

miir.^s^:

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III

III

in

if

104

THI-: ML'MBLK-BI'R

Berkshire at Strcatlcy. Other localities are —
Shotover, Oxfordshire, and in Berkshire, Tubney,
near Abin_<;don, and Charlbiiry (Hamm) ; Boxmoor,
Herts (Piffard); Wicken, Cambs, on coinfrey
(Nevinson); Brighton Downs (S. S. Saunders);
Croydon and Ipswich (Rothney); Barton Mills,
Siittolk (Perkins); Rugby (Morice) ; Yarm,
Yorkshire (Rudd) ; Carlisle (Heysham); in Ayr-
shire at Barr, Kilkerran, and Dundonald (Dalglish);
in Stirlingshire at Kilsyth, and in Lanarkshire at
Elvanfoot. A male from the last-named locality in
the Saunders' collection has the tail darkened by the
admixture of black hairs, except a small spot in the
middle.

On the Ct)ntinent the coloration of this species
varies greatly. The yellow bands are sometimes
absent, and a variety in which the tail in all sexes is
red, is, in many places, comir.oner than the white-
tailed form.

ilil i!

iiiii

i

i; ;

VIII

BOMB L 'S PRA Ti )A' I 'J/

l6:

5. BOMBUS PRATORUM, Liiiiia;us.
Early-ncstin- Hiiinblo hce.

(JUKKN. — Small; Icn-th 15-17 mm., expanse 28-3:;
mm.

I lead and tliorax black, with a yellow band across the
front of the thorax. Abdomen black, wiiji a yellow band on
the 2nd segment, often interrupted in the initidle, and with
the 5th and 6th segments, sometimes also the 4th, red.
'Ihe black hairs are often ti[)ped with white.

Dark s])ecimens have the yellow banii on the thorax
more or less interrupted in the middle, and the yellow
band on the abdomen much interruj)ted or absent.

Coat uneven. Compared with tcrn-stris the difference
is especially noticeable in the yellow band on the :?ntl
segment of the alKiomen, the hairs constituting this band
being uneiiual in length and decumbent, while in /twrj/m
they are ccjual and erect.

\\'()RK1;k. — Length 10-14 'i""^-

Coloi-red like the (luecn, but the yellow band on the
abdomen is often absent.

Mali:.— Length 11-13 mm., expanse 2y2C) mm.

Hairs on the face and on the top of the head yellow.
Thorax black, with a broad yellow band in front aiul some-
times a few yellow hairs behind. Abdomen black, with
the 1st and 2nd segments yellow, and the 5th, 6th, and 7th
segments, sometimes also the 4th, red. The black hairs
are often tipped with white.

Dark specimens have the _\eIlow on the 1st and 2nd
segments of the abdomen obscured or absent, and onl>- the
6th and 7th segments red.

Coat long and shaggy.

Antennre rather short; length of flagcllum, 5 mm.

Armature like tliat o'i B. jouillns and hif^po'itcus.

B. pratornni is a very coinmoii .species in Enghiiid
and Scotland, but there is no record of it from Ire-

I

.,;

M,

Hli

iiif

i

100

'mi: iiUMBLi'.-Hi:!'

I.uitl. Ill the soiilh of l';iit,'laiul thi; (iiiccns appcir
in March ami April, ami they cominciicc ncstinj,'
earlier than those of any other species ; the males arc;
pleiitifui in June, and the colonies break up in July.
Occasionally, however, specimens may he seen in
Auuust and Si'ptember. During the; tirst week in
September 191 i, some /ri/Avv/w workers were busy
on the (lowers t)f scarlet runnt;r beans in a ,t,Mrden at
Ripi)le when the workers of all the oth(.T species
were lethargic and their colonies on the eve of
dissolution.

I his species is very unconventional in the choice
ot Its abode. Sometimes a bird's nest is utilised, it
may be in an ivy-clad tree at some height from the
ground : sometimes its dwelling is at a short distance
under the ground, and here a decaying tree-root is a
favourite place. Often the nest is siluatetl on the
surface like that of the carder-bees, but it is generally
in a wood or under a bush or tree.

The colonies are not so large as those of h-nrs-
ins and lapidariits, and the workers are very meek
when the nest is disturbed. The wax is dark brown.
The pollen is stored in waxen cells built singly on
eminences ; these cells are smaller, and of a more
regular shape than the pollen cells of tcrrcstris.

The queens are very fond of the flowers of Rihcs
saiir^iiinaiw, and the workers and males of raspberry,
blackberry, Cotoncastcr, and the woody nightshade
{So/annin dnlcaiiiara).

-^^f^

v:^r-.

■p

/>(K]/J1('S J()X/:/./JS

if)7

6. BOMBUS JONELLUS, Kirl)>-.

llcul, IluniM,- liLC.
SsiiMiiyni : scrimshiranus, Kirl>y,

iciiL^tii t 5 - I 7 mm., cxp.iiwr

(Ji;r.i;\, — Sinal
"3 mm.

'1 he cdlnuiiii;,; i-, very like tli.it ^'^ hoytoiitui.

I'acc black, tup of the head inoH' or Ic^-; \clluu.
'I'liorax black, with a >cll()w band in h'otit and anotlicr
bi-hind. .Abdumcn black witii tlie t^•^t sCL^mcnt, and
-i-ncrally the base nf the second se-ment yellow, and
with the fourtli and fdlkjwin;^ se-inents white, rarel)-
cream-coloured, tlie white often be;^M'nnint; on the ed-e of
the tliird vej^Miient. Hairs of the corbicula usually reddish :
i:i linrtoriDi! tiiey are entire'}-, or almost entirely, black.

Head short, the length of the cheeks being not more than
a third of that of the eyes. By this character this species
may he casil_\- distinLjuished from /ii>rti<nitii and ru<h-nitus.

W'okKKK. — Lcn;4th 10-14 "t^-
Resembles the c ' 1 except in size.

.Mali:. — Lcn. 12-14 mni., e\[)aiise 24-27 mm.

Coloured like v j queen, but the face is yellow and the
black on the abdomen often extends on to tlie base of
the fourtii secernent.

Easily distinguishable from /ior/oriiin by its short head,
the lenL;th of the cheeks, as in the queen, Ijeini; not more
than a third of that of tlie e\-es. It is al-o a smaller,
less elongate inject tlian the male of /inrlcniiii. and the
antennae are decidedly shorter than in horlorutiu the len-tli
of the flagelluin bein;^' only 5 mm.

Armature like that (A pratoniiii and /ii/'/'c/i/ius.

/>. joucllus is a local sp(;cic:s, Init ccjinnioiicr and
more witlely distriljiitcd in th<- north and west than
in the south and ea.st. It is rare in Mast Kent and

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IV'

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1 68

Tiir: nuMHLi:-Hi:i':

I have only once (oiiml a colony ; this was in a
stiuirrcl's nest in the top of a Scotch fir. It fre-
(jiicnts heaths and is very partial to the (lowers of
/:noi. Mr. Xevinson tells me he takes it also on
bilberry. I have taken the males in October in
Connemara on the fuchsia that grows wild there.
Mr. Xevinson says that the hum of this species
is almost as shrill as that of /A syhaniin.

B. jonellus, variety nivalis, Sinitli.

This variety, which is found in Shctlaiul, is lander
tlian tlic onhiiary tonn Ictv^th nf the iiuecii 17-18 mm.,
expanse 31-33 nim.^ and has the yellow bantls wiiler
and nf a decjier tint, and the tail tawny instead of white,
also the coat is longer and more shai;^^y. In the queen'
and worker the hairs of the corbicula are black, not
reddish.

I his variety, or one approaching it, also occurs
in the Outer Hebrides, a tawny-tailed male having
been taken in Harris by Dale.

Specimens of jomllus that have recently been
sent me from Stromness, Orkney, resemble the
ordinary PInglish form, except in being slightly
larger, in having a rather longer coat, and, in the
case ol some of the (jueens and workers, having the
hairs of the corbicula black.

TS

(J 1 p

M^i.^Mjn!iM^j^y\

nO.U/U'S LA/'/U)X/CCS

169

7. B0MBU8 LAPP0NICU8, F.ihr
Mdutitain lltimljlc-licf.

IClll-

OL-|.;i.:N.__.M^,lii„„.,i,^,^, . k'n.;tli 16-18 ,n,n., expanse
33-.i5 "nn. Alxldiiicn Avn\ ami broad.

Head black, with inorr .,r less pale vcllow ...1 top and
sometimes 0,1 the face. Th(,rax black with a pale yellow
band ni front atid a much narrower (,ne behind ; in dark
^l.ecMneI.s the latter band is absent. .\bdonicn with the
fir.t se-nient black, or in li-ht specimens more or less
pale yellow, and u itii the 2nd and following segments bright
red, niclinin- to pale ye!l,.w at the .ides of the 4th and
5th se-mcnts. In dark specimens the black on the ist
se-ment spreads on to the -nd se:^nient, shailin<,r into the
red. Hairs on the hind tibi.e black.

On the abdomen the coat is very long, but even.

W nUKKU. — I.eiv^th IO-15 '"m.
Only differs from tlie (jiieen m size.

.M.\l.i;.— Len;4th 14-15 m.m., expanse 26-2; mm.

Coloured like the queen.

On the abdomen the coat is very long, but even.

.\nteim;e short; length of tla-elliim 5 mm.
•Armature like that of H. f^ratorum and y,>y,,////.v.

This beautiful species is local and is found only
in mountainous districts, wit', few e.xceptions. h
has been recorded by .Smith from the Black Moun-
tam, Brecknockshire ; .Snowdon and other mountains
in Wales: Herefordshire; Monmouthshire; Halifa.x
Moor, Yorkshire, and Loch Rannoch, Perthshire :
and by Saunders from C.loucestershire ; Cannock
Chase; Chvyd Hill; High Moors, Marston ; Staly-
bridoe ; Chat Moss ; Kei-hley, Vorks ; Argyllshire
and Aberdeenshire. Other localities are Penmaen-

i

TO

nil' lirMHLK-IUlK

in.iur (C.anlnt r) ; iUvkhi^wyii ( .\<;wstc',ul) ; WilMlni,
N'orks (|{uttt.'rti.l.l) ; I liaKU-rslicld (Moricc); I^iulc
ami Malvern on hell lu-aihcr (N'cviiisoii) ; Kin^nissic,
Callander, Loiiioml Hills, Halerno, anil en the Isle
of May and Bass Rock at the mouth ol the |-'irtli
of I-"orth ([".vans); Oolspie, Sutherl.indshire (N'er
bury) ; Craigellachie, Mantlshire.

'!»

/>().i//;rs C(/jJM.ix(s

171

8. BOMBUS CULLUMANUS, Ki.hy.

' 'uiliiiu s lliiinML-la'c.

<K\\\ iui.l WoKKIK— The (luc.n an. I u,,rk,r ul"
tlii-. ^iii'cii.-, liavc 11. ' yvx l)ccii taken in liritain,
I Ik ir sj/e i-, proh.iljly iindiiiin.

Sprcimnis ot" larL^c uoikcr. in the SaiindcrV c.illrcti.m
fiMin l?iir:.M)s, Spain, arc hiack uitli a ;.;ri'yi'.li-yfll(iu hand
(HI tlic front (if the thorax and a snnieuhat narrower one
at tlie hack ; tlie 1 .t and _'iid -.c-nicnt^ of tlie ah.lonu n
-rc>ish-\ellou, and the 4th and following segments red.
In specimens in tiie ^anie collection from Schlesui-, the
4th and followin.; sci^iiients are red, hut the .^reyi.h-yellow
bands are absent.

Ill all tlie specimens the corhiciila iiair-^ are bl.ick, bnt
the loii^rer ones are tin-ed with yellow. The Huff oil the
limen is paler tii.iii in /^ipii/on'/is.

The coat is rather sl,o,-t, even and stiff. The hairs on
the Ic^'s are rather shorter and stiffer than in most species.
Cheeks sliL;htly shorter than in /,///, /„///«, and more
strongly punctured at the siiles and base.

! find that, under the microscope, the hind metatarsi
are not covered with a net-like pattern as in l,,ri,ia):ns,
'InluDucllits, and (the base excepted fnUonini. Upper
apical comer of hind tibiae much upturned. Auricle not
hairy on the inner side as in lapidarius. Length of
3rd antenna! joint about 1,^, times its apical uidUi: in
infii/.iiiits anil dcrltmucllKS k is about twice its .iiiical
width.

Mali:.— Lenprth 13-14,", mm., expanse 2r,-2S mm.

The colourin- is very like that of an extreme'v li-ht
ihrhaiii,-llns male.

I'ace and top of the head i;rc\-ish-yeliow. Thorax black,
v.ith a greyish-yellow band in front and an almost equally wide
one of the same colour posteriorly. Abdomen with the 1st
and iaid segments greyish-yellow, 3rd segment black, the
division between the black and the yellow \er\- clearly
defined. 4th and following segments red. The underside is

1 1
* i \

\\

1/2

THE HUMBLE-BEE

-»iA,'. i-'^'

clothed with Unv^ t,^rcyish-ycllou- h.iirs. The hairs on the
tibi.e are j^reyish-j-eilow, not red as in derltamdlus.

The coat is denser and somewhat lont^er tlian in
dcyhaiiu-llus : on tlic abdomen it is even, not sha^^Ljy as
in dcr/tixmcllus, and, especially on the 3nd, 3rd, and 4th
scLjmeiits, is more erect than in that species.

riie hind metatarsi are not parallel-sided as in <it-r/ia»icl-
lus, but narrow gradually from below the middle to the base.

l-^yes ratlicr prominent. Cheeks short, shorter than in
(lerhaitiellus.

Antcnn;e with 3rd joint longer than 4tli. Length of
flagcilum 5 \ mm. Kach joint of tiie flagellum except the first
is sliglitly arched, more (h'stinctly so than in dcfhamcllus,
and joints 6-13 are not swelled behind as in that species.

Armature distinct.

aSi^v:

: ! ! I i i : I

Very rare in Britain where only the male has so
far been found. The type specimen was taken by
Kirby at W'itnesham in Suffolk. Four more speci-
mens were captured at Southend by Smith, who
also recorded e.xamples from Brighton Downs and
Bristol. All these ca])tures were made over thirty
years arro, and none have been recorded since, but
on September S, 191 1, I took a somewhat faded
male at Ripple on a roadside head oiCciifaurca nis^ra.
A colour photograph of this specimen is shown in
1 late n. Probably, if it were sufficiently looked for,
the species would be found existing over an exten-
sive area in the south and east of England. It is
also rare on the Continent.

This is evidently a late-appearing humble-bee,
for the Southend sjiecimens were taken at the end of
August and my capture was made when the other
species wt;re beginning to disappear.

PLATE II.

Bombus pratorum. Bombus lapponicus. Bombus jonellus.

Bombus cnilttmanus.

Slii^'hlly faded.

Bombus ruderatus.

Bombus ruderatus.

ALL NATLKAL Sl/Fl

! .

• J
)

I

'• n

' I

m

j III

III

Hi

VIII

BOA/B ( \S R UDERA TUS

^7Z

Sixrio.N 1 1. — Pockct-iitakcrs.
Sl-i;-skctio\ I. — Pollen-primers.

9. BOMBUS RUDERATUS, Fabricius.
Large Garden Humble-bee.

Synonyms :— subterraneus (Linn.;, according to Smith ;
hamsellus, Kirby.

Closely allied to B. /lorloruiii.

Queen. — Lar<,fc ; larger than hortorum ; length 21-23
mm., e.xpanse 40-43 mm.

The ii,i,'hte,st examples are coloured very like hortonun,
namely, with two yellow bands on the thorax, the base of
the abdomen yellow, and the tail white ; but the yellow
bands are of a slightly deeper and duller tint than in
/i or torn III, and the yellow band at the back of the thorax is
approximately of the same width in the middle as the yellow
band on the front of the thorax. The yellow on the ist
segment of the abdomen is more or less interrupted in
the middle by black, and does not spread on to the 2nd
.segment : the edge of the 3rd segment is white at the
sides only, and the 5 th seginent has often a few black
hairs about the middle.

In darker specimens the abdomen has little or no
trace of yellow on the ist segment, and the white of the
tail is often dingy. This variety closely resembles
B. Idtirillelliis, the description of which see.

Siill darker specimens have the jellow bands on the
thorax narrow and dusky, and the white of the tail
brownish and displaced by black on the middle or whole
of the 5 th segment.

In the next stage of darkening almost all trace of the
yellow thoracic bands has disappeared, except sometimes
a pale round spot a little to the front of each wing, and
the abdomen is black with the 4th segment brown.

m

nu

:Ui

MH'

174

THE HUMBLE-BEE

vm

The darkest specimens are entirely black.' Tliis is tiic
A/^/s haryistila of Kirbj-.

The coat is slightly more even, slightly stiffer, an slightly
shorter than in hortonun, but markedly longer than in latral-
Iclliis. These coat-quality differences arc most noticeable
in the yellow hairs on the ist segment when the latter
are present.

The head (viewed from in front, is very long in proport.on
to its width, less long than in /lortontiii, but more so than in
hUreillcllus, the cheeks being about half as long as the eyes.

WORKKR.— Length I 1-18 mm. Banded specimens and
entirely black specimens occur, but intermediately coloured
specimens arc .seldom found, unless they are very large.

The banded variety is coloured like the lightest van'ety
of the queen, the only variation towards blackness usually
met with being a slight narrowing and darkening of the
yellow bands on the thorax and on the ist segment of
the abdomen ; the latter band .seldom disappears, and in
all examples the tail remains white.

The banded worker ma\- be known from the workers
of Jioytonim and latrcilleUits hy the characters given m the
description of the queen, but separation is often difficult
in the case of small and worn specimens.

-Mali:. — Scarcel\- larger than liortoriiui ; length 15-16
mm., expanse 30-32 mm. Abdomen rather elongate.
Banded specimens and entirely black specimens occur,' but

intermediately coloured specimens are rare.

]5andcd specimens arecoloured like the male of //,;;•/, w/w,
but th- .:;des of the thorax, under the wings, are more or
less _-ello-\-, while in luvtoniiii they are ustially black. The
yellow hands are more sharply separated from the black
than in liortorniii ; those on the thorax are broad, the
iJo.terior band being as broad in the middle as' the
band at the front ; the yellow on the base of the abdomen
is usually confined to the ist segment, but occasionally

' The ..Illy .i:Ir.,- l;,iii,|, .p.v-:,.. th.il v.uu- In .-ntiiclv bhck h l\,t!n;„s

¥ihi^m.

ii^jm^

VIII

BOM BUS RUDER ATI'S

175

there arc a few yellow hairs on the extreme base of the
2nd segment.

Intermediately coloured specimens are black, wah the
tail t^reyish-brown.

The beards on the mandibles are rust-colourcd, though
often discoloured with nectar; in /lortoruiii they are black.

The coat is shorter, somewhat stiffer. and much more even
than in /lortoniin : these combined differences arc very
noticeable.

Face long as in Jiortonini, but the e>-es arc slightly
larger and the checks slightly shorter, these being about
half as long as the eyes.

Antennae long, as in hortorum ; length of (lagcllum 6 .' mm.

Armature like that of liortoiuni.

This is a very common humble-bee in England,
but it is less abundant in Scotland, disappearing
completely in the north of Scotland ; and I know
of only one specimen from Ireland, a queen taken
by Mr. Freke at Borris, Co. Carlow. The nest
is under the ground, often with a long hole ; but
I have seldom found it, although the species is
usually plentiful at Ripple. The wax is dark
reddish brown, and is very soft and sticky ; the
sheets and cells made of it are thick.

The division between B. riidcratns and hortonon
is not very deep, and intermediate specimens,
especially of the male, are sometimes found. But
in the neighbourhood of Dover I have not vet
taken an intermediate queen, and in none of the
nests taken by me have the two species been mi.xed
The distinction between the two is maintained in
Central Europe, but it is not reco^ni:

in the south of France.

by

^.^Xk,Z^^

M'r^'

I

MP

i.

'lilii;:

i

!

i
!

1

1

i

^i

176

THE HUMBLE-BEE

\ 111

Most of the Httle differences that separate
rude rat lis from /lortoriim — WAxnfAy, the larger size
of the queens, the deeper tint of the yellow bands,
the shorter, less shaggy coat, and the greater ten-
dency to disappear in the north— are similar to
those that divide tcrrcslyis from liuontm. The
parallelism extends even to the habits, for the
queens of riidcmtiis appear in their greatest num-
bers later in the spring than those ' of hortoriuu,
also they are more prolific, and the colonies are
more poi^ulous and break up later. Rudcratus, like
tcrrcstris, flourishes under a great variety of con-
ditions ; its distribution extends to the north coast
of Africa, and even to Madeira, and it was success-
fully introduced with terrcstris into New Zealand
in 18S5.

The black variety is not a different race from
the banded variety, but both are often produced by
the same parent.

A colony taken by Tuck at Bury St. Edmunds
on September 10, 1898, out of a mole's nest "quite
five feet away from the entrance-hole," was ex-
amined by Saunders and the result recorded in the
Entcmiologisf s Monthly Magazine for iXovember
1898. It conta-'ned 8 queens of the variety having
obscure yellow bands on the front and back of the
thorax, and the 4th segment of the abdomen dusky
white ; 3 black queens, 19 banded workers, 14
black workers, 1 banded male, and i black male.

A populous colony that I took at Ripple on
July 7, 191 1, contained 51 banded workers and

.:^^::sm^Smti7MMi

T^^'is^aamammM^j

Bi \ MB L S A' I 'DERA TL S 1 7 7

49 black workers, and the old (iiiceii was of the
obscurely-banded variety. In June 1911 I took a
nest in which the old queen was entirely black, and
kept it under observation. All the workers pro-
duced were of the banded variety, and all the first
males produced were black ; but later soinj males
of the yellow variety a[)peared— these were prob-
ably the young of the workers. Un July 17, 191 i,
I took a nest in which the old queen was of the
li,i;htest variety ; it contained :^;^ workers and 3
males, all banded.

In a strong nest found by Mr. Ilamm near
Uorchester, 0.\on, in 1911, all the individuals were
black.

It is probable that the proportion of banded to
black individuals produced by each queen follows
Mendel's Law. It is very remarkable that the
workers and males should be sharply dimorphic,
while the queens show every degree of variation.
The black variety is said not to occur en the
Continent.

In the north of Italy and eastwards into Styria
a remarkable variety of r/a/i'ra/ns, named aixi/hiaiis,
exists. In the queen of this variety the yello-.
bands on the front and back of the thorax are very
wide, the abdomen is entirely black, and the wings
are dark brov.n ; but the workers and males are
coloured like the ordinary banded variety. Hoffer
says that ar<;i//accits, with tcrrcstris, has the largest
number of individuals in the nests. A beautiful
nest brought to him by his brother in the year 18S1

ii

in*

m

178

TIN- HUMMLH-HHH

VIII

cnntainwl "almost always 300 to 400 indivitliials ;
hut at tilt; time of j^^reati'st prosperity far over 400.
They tlew like hees in and out ; frequently they
throiigeil into the lliLjht-hole exactly like honey-
hees, especially before rain, when the first drops
leil. They possessed an extraordinarily large
amount of honey ; frequently more than 100 cocoons
and honey-pots were filled with it."

In Corsica the queen of riidcTatiis, like that of
the Corsicaii (crrcstris, has no yellow bands and
has the tail red : the worker resembles the queen,
except that the red tail is lighter, but the male
shows traces of th(; yellow bands and his tail is
orange or white. This is the variety corsiais.

The males of ntdcratns select certain trees, and,
following one another from tree; to tree, hover round
the foliage at a considerable height from the ground,
whereas the males of liorloritm lly close to the ground,
as explained on page 13.

Fully-developed rudcratus queens are the largest
of the British Ihmihi, although large examples of
latnillcllns, dishni^ucndiis, and tcrrcstris are almost
equal to them. The tongue (A rudcratus is about
as long as that of Jiortoruui, and, like hortoruni,
rudcratus visits the longest -tubed flowers. Its
especial favourites are the white dead-nettle, hore-
hound, and red clover.

■i<r

ay,«

-I'-^i

mLM^'fM'v^

liOMJUS /IDRIORrM

>79

10. BOMBUS HORTORUM, I

-mii.Liis.

Siii.iil (i.irdf' I'l

l'Ik'i

The b.m.icl varit-ty of tlir closdy-nlatcl /,'. y„dc,„tus
IS very like tlii. -pecie-, ; for point. .,f .liiTcrence :;eo the
description of /;', ntdtfiUus.

len-tli \--20 mm., expanse

Oi;ki;\.— Medium ^i/ed
35-.VJ mm.

Hca<i black. Thorax black, with a bright yellow band in
front and a slightly narrower one behind. .Abd.iinen l)lack.
witli the isl sc-ment yei;r,>.v, the yello'^- exte.idin- on to'
the extreme base of the 2nd .e-mr:,:, the 4th and 5th
segments white, the white -enerallv extendin- on to the

cd-e of the 3rd -e;^'ment, and tin

'^'th >e"mcnt

hla

ck.

CorbicLiki iiairs black, rarely \.\\^\r.-A with red

In dark ?])ecimen^ the \-elIou- band^ are v,me\v!iat
narrowed, and darkened by an admi.xture of bl.iek liairs.
Coat rather Ion;^r and ratlier iine\en.
The head is more elon-ate than in anv otlier >pecies ;
it is nearly twice as Ion- as it is broad, and the cheeks are
rather more than half as long as the eyes. ]5\- this ch.aracter
B. hortoyum is easily distin.^uishcd from /i j.-,u-//hs, which
is very dmilarl}- coloured.

\\'<>i;Kr;K.— Lcn-th 11-16 mm.
Oiil_\- differs fro:n the (uicen in

mm.

• \y.(:.
expanse

29-3:

iTini.

M.vi.E. — Lcn^rtli 14-15
.Abdomen rather eloiiLjate.

Head black, more uv le--, yellow on top. Thorax
black, with a yellow band in front, and another one, .some-
what narrower, behind. .\bdoinen black, with the 1st
segment yellow, the yellow extendin- on to the extreme ba^;
(jfthc 2nd sc-ment in the middle: 4th and 5th segments

white. 6th

black in the middde white ;it tl

black.

Dark specimens have tlie \-elI
more or less blackened.

le side-

-th

banti- and white tail

1 1

.ns^

I

It

m

!-.

■"1!

.Ml

! i'i

I So

riii- iiuMHLi:-iu:i'

VIII

C'lMt iiiir\cii .111(1 iMtliiT l"iu;.

Head very long as in the queon, the cheeks being rather
more than half as long as the eyes.

Antennae long, Icn-tli of ll.i^rlliiin T),', min.
.Annatiiio like tli.it of A". ni,ln,ttns.

\ iii.iIl- si-m IMC Irdin C.ii^iil m rrrtliNlnic i-, rntin-lv lil.uk,
« ill \\w cxieption of .1 leu M .uiiMil ii.iir-, on the 51I1 .iik! Mil

/)'. /lor/ortiiii is one of tlic coinmoiu-st ami most
widely distributed ot'tlu: liritish species, and occurs,
though not very pltiititully. iu Orkney. The (|ueens
begin to appear and to make their nests rather early
in the season. In the Dover district most of the
nests are started about the midille of May, but a U'\w
cjueens may he seen working U[) to the end of June,
and occasionally later. On July i ;, 101 1, I took a
nest in which the first batch of workers had not
emerged, but they be<;an coming out two days
later. The queen was rather small but very active,
anil showed no signs of wear or e.xposure, which
suggested that she might have been reared the
same season. The males are most abundant in
July, but continue appearing in small numbers till
October.

I he nests are not very populous and seldom, I
think, contain more than 100 workers. Thev are
generally under the ground, with a short tunnel. I
once found a (jueen occupying a sparrow^'s nest in a
\ irginian creeper at a height of about twenty feet
from the ground on the wall of a house : the nest
consisted of soft hay and feathers, and under the
comb there was an addled sparrow's egg.

j;. I

m

vm

niwf/ics iiORjoRrM

iSi

Tin; cocoons an- of a lighter yellow than those
of niiiintdis.

I he hum of this species is not so loud as that of
many others, and the queen llies very f]uietly to and
from lier nest.

Irish specimims of the queen are sHj^duly larL^er
than Kn^dish ones and have the coat sh'j^ditly
coarser, with the yellow thoracic hands rather wider,
especially the posterior one, this beinj^^ almost as
wide as the anterior one. In Irish males the yellow
bands are also rather witle : a male in the Irish
National Museum from Mi]f(jrd, Co. Donegal, has
the anterior hand twice as wide as the black band
immediately behind it. .1 suitable name for the
Irish variety o{ hortoniiii is ivcniiats.

The tongue of the queen is almost as long as ih -
entire insect, e.xtending to five-eighths of an inch
It can therefore e.\tract honey from the longest-
tubed dowers, such as the woundworts, honeysuckle,
nasturtium, red clover, white dead-nettle, and here-
hound, and it prefers these to tlowers that are
accessible to the shorter- tongued bees, its long
tongue making it difficult for it to work on the
latter.

Ui

"■'m

^4^-»

m

■ i|f| H,

VIII

I '^2 tup: HUMiuj:-iii:i:

11. B0MBU8 LATREILLELLD8, Kirhy.'

Slh.rt h.iircii lliinililr Inc.

Synonym subterraneus ( I. mi, , .„ , unlma k. many , .mtincnt..!

auilidi-..

(JlF.l.N. Lar-c; It-iij^th 20-j:; m n., .Npaiisc ^8-41
mm.

11. a. I l.lack. Thorax l)!,ick with a yellow band in front
and a very narrow one behind, tlir \ilIou, as in nn/rni/us,
ratlur deep except in yoiiiiL; xprcimciis ;, and soon
becomin- dull a:id brownish uitli exposure ; often the
band on the front of the thorax is in the iniildlc
encroached upon from behin<l, or ilivided, by a snuid-e
of black. Abilomen black, with the 4th and Mh segmen'ts
white, and with ,. frin;^'c of yellowish or din^'y white on
the ed^e of the 3rd se^'ment, a narrower and fainter one on
the edge of the 2nd segment ; this Ijciiv^r ,,ften brownisli and
scarcely discernible, and often ,1 few yellowish hairs on
the edi;e of the 1st sei^'mcnt : in li-ht specimens, which
are not common, the ist set;ment is yellow.

Coat short- very short on the basal segments of the
abdomen.

The head is elongate, but somewhat less so than in
'.v,/,7v,/w, the length of the cheeks bein- distinctl>- less than
half that of the eyes.

The -encral appearance is very like that of a ciuecii of
/v^,/,v.^/«,s, but it is always possible to distinguish the one

' A.c-r.lin^ I" tliLUi-ntTilIy .nccui.tr.i ruli-, ,.f i,rn,iiv, ..//•■,V/ ..•//, /, , [.inn ,
.^n .il.r i,.ii,K- lliaii /,,/,,///,.';„<, k,r|,y, -li,.,,!-! l,f u,ol l,.r tlii, speur.. ;....!
11 lia, hocni-xtenMvi-ly adopted ..ii the ( niuinrni, Init 1 do i,.,t think ii advi,.
;>Mctoal,:induiuhenniiie..l .W.Ow/.i.'.Vr , l.y «l,irli the paitNuInr , ol.u,, ^aruty
.if lli;-, .|„.i,s that nc.ur, in liiiiain and liie -rtMiM pan ..f W.M.in Kumpe
!. univ..r,ally kn..«n. Tlio r,,irca apptlhuiun ,,l ,,„r l,rc diould thus l.f
".././•/.;■;.„„„,, va,. A,/r,,/^ ;/„.,- .„;. ,i„, i„,p„|„,,i„„ „f ,,,^. „^,„^ ,,,,,_^._

'.u.r..,< nuu thr Drili.h Ii>t at lh>- pu-t-ni linu- «-,„l.l >-nu.e much r a^ion,

l.ci-au,c nnl.l now it ha, l.,aa. aj. plied Iv llriti,!, author, lo A ,; .■,■„,'„!
I!rili-h specimen, of „hich often a.^r. .; «ilh l.inn . \ hitcr dc-ciipllon of
u •-,•,„„■„.. ■■ hu-nla. atra, ano fu,ro." So„u- .v-te,.-ati,t. hold the opinion,
whuh I, not hkcly to M.eft «ith univer^al app-ol„uio„, tiiai earlv nanu., api.ly-
m- e^iually lo more tlian ..ne specie- ^-liould l,e drojipe.!.

"m It f

PLATK III

Bombus rudera.

Bonibus hortorum.

Bombus latreillellus. Bombus distinguendus.

ALL \.\ilK.\L M/i .

:

' u

!*.

t -■ -■.

i;;?
fill

111

.11

(

BOM BUS LA TRIilLLELL L S , S3

from the other by the foIlow,„,r eharacters :_the .h'^htlv
>horter ci.eks o^ A./.v.« ^.. ; the shorter ccat of S

c> cci.il y ,f tliere are jcllou- hairs there ; the nam,u
ycllou-.sh or brownish fri„,e on the ed^e of the ^n 1 e
"->t. ahnost alu-ays present in ^./.v^^^/b sd , £
-"^vv,..; and lastly, a very conspicuou ciisti.^'u ;,"

o^'w,::i;-,^f!:s-^.r:;:.;-ionedbys^';;h

exuninea. Thisisi^the^at^r^XruJyr

of h \r ■ ■''"'■ '" '"'-'-"''''' *^« "^"d at the back
of the thorax ,s much narrower than the band at the front b , t

■- ^v./,v.v,v. the bands, n^easured aeross the ,n' il' a e
•'Ppn.xnnately of equal width. '"Hldle. are

WOKKKK.-Large; len.^ah .2-, 8 mm.

bael "ft \/'"' ''"""• '"^ ^'" >-''^""- b-ui on the
baek ot the thorax ,s sometimes .absent, and in snrdl

i^: s:;;:;r^ '^ ^--'''>- "---^ ^

Mau:. — Rather laprc • l.-n^rth ,- ,r
^«-3.mm. Abdomen^-aih^dlLajr'™"'^^''^''-

Pale yellow with a greenish or brownish tinge ^^it!l th,.
except.on of ti,e following blaek nuarkin.s. T e ,et^

A black band across the thorax between the wings A bkck
band across the 2nd segment nf fi.,. v^ ^

-ener iIK- n.^r segment of the abdomen, and another

.cnc. 1!> narrower, across the 3rd segment ; these h.ands are
separated by a narrow band of -reeni h wl-it > i

ed-e of th,. -1,,! ,-,'Lem-n-\\| ite on the

middle - . 7TV ""^ ^^^'""'^ '^'^"^'^ i" the

> '"<-. /th .e,,Mnent blaek. This eolourin.r r..n,bles

t.;at,./..,_,^^^^^

I" li^du .specimens the bl.ack !,ands on the -^nd and

^ . \cnou. a, 10 the- ;th [lartlv so; i,, the li.d,tr<^

"- -Hi -;;n,em, eh.elly a. the .side.s, although they are

M

{'

i

9

H

1S4

THE HUMBLE-BEE

sometimes so few tliat it is necess.iiy to use a lens to sec
tiicm.

In (lark sjiecimcns the pale band separating; the black
bands on the 2iul and 3r(l se^^nnents is faint and broken,
and there are traces of black bands on the 4th and 5th
seL^ments.

Coat short ; hairs on the let;s short.

Antenna; loni,^ ; len_L;th of llaLjellum 6 mm.

Armature very like that of /A <h'sliiii^iuiii/ns.

A (lark iii.ile fidiii liavliiiL; Island in the S.unuk'r^' CdllccliDn i>
black with the exception of a pale yellou band on the front of the
thorax, an indi^-tind one on the back of the thora\, \\hiti-,h frin.^es
on the edyes of the 41)1 and 5th sej^ment-, and faint «hiii>l; frin^i'^
on the ed-es of the 2nd and 3rd segments.

In most years, />'. latrcillcHns is abundant in the
Deal and Dover district; it is also common in
SiiHolk and in many localities in the south and east
of England In the north of England it appears to
be scarce, and I can find no evidence that it has
been taken either in Scotland or ii^. Ireland.

The queens, like those of lapidarius, appear late,
and in the Dover district mav be seen searching; for
nests at the end of May and early in June.

The queen often rears a very large brood. Two
nests that I examined in the stage just before the
first workers emerged had a number of additional
cocoons fastened to the rear of the main cluster. In
one of these nests, shown in Eig. 27, the additional
cocoons niuiibered nine, and those in the main
cluster sixteen, making twenty-five in all, many
more than the (]ueen could spread her body over.
The main cluster was easily distinguished by the
groove in its centre, and by the darker appearance

t • / ■

'■:^.

«M

nOMBL'S LA TRIULLELL I S 1 85

of the cocoons, which contJiinetl pujxL- in an advanced
stage, while the additional cocoons contained hirv;e
and young piip;e.

The population, however, does not grow so large
as that of nests of lapidariits or terrcstris, the males
and (jueens being soon produced. This species,

, ■-.': '■ Mis sj^ '^

riii. 27. — (.llltrii 1.1 /.'. /„■,', ivV/f/.V, inculul,lii; li,-r iinmriiM- lurn;) (.llir.). ..1,
.Ncjtif.- tlijt 11 li.i« lntu;iic j..iiifil ti) lli,' liuli.\-|Hit,

therefore, does well in a short season. The workers
are unusually i.irge.

This species has little skill in wax-building ; the
honey-pot is clumsily constructed, the larva- are
often imperfectly covered, and blotches of wax are
allowed to remain on the cocoons.

'I'he bees, comb and nest, have a characteristic
disagreeable odour.

)Jfivf;

1 86

THE HUMBLE-BEE

VIII

/>. iatrcillcllus has rather a long tongue, and like
nidenxttis and hortoniiii, it chieHy visits long-tubed
flowers. I have seen it most frequently on honey-
suckle and TrifoliuDi pratcnsc.

vn, BOMB US DISriNGUENDUS 1S7

12. BOMBUS DISTINOUENDUS, Morauitz.
(Ireat Yellow Hunible-bec.
Synonym : — elegans, Sticll (in part).
Related to B. li-itrcillcllus.

IciiL,nh 20-23 mm., expanse 39.

OUKKX. — Lar^c,-e
42 mm.

Dusky yellow or greenish-yellow, soon fadinc^ to dingy
brownish-yellow, with an admixture of black liairs on the
head, and with a black or dark grey band across the middle
of the thorax. The yellow is somewhat deeper on the 2nd
se^^ment of the abdomen than on the rest of the abdomen.

In light specimens the black band on the thorax is
often more or less tinged with yellow at the sides.

Coat longer and denser than in latreilUilus, especially
on the basal segments of the abdomen.

Head slightly shorter than in latrfillfllus.

Worker. — Length 11-18 mm.
Resembles the queen except in size.

M.\i.E. — Length 15-16 mm., expanse 28-31 mm.
Rather elongate.

Coloured like the queen. Closely resembles light speci-
mens of latrcilkllits, but there is no trace of black hairs on
the 2nd segment.

The coat is rather denser lud longer than in
latn-illellus male.

Antenna- as in latycilUllus ; length of flagellum 6 mm.

Armature almost identical with that of latrcilUllns.

This humble-bee is rare in the south of England;
it was formerly taken occasionally in the London
district, and sporadic examples have been recorded
from Oxford, Bristol, Lyme Regis, Newton Abbott,
and Truro. In the Dover district I have onlv taken

.

i

1 88

THH HUMBLH-BF.K

a single worker. In the east of England it has been
met with at Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Southwold,
and Brandon. In the midlands, and in Yorkshire,
Lancashire, and farther north it is more common,
though it does not appear to be anywhere plentiful.
I have received specimens from Perthshire and
Orkney. It has also been recorded from the Isle
of Man ; from Noith Uist in the Hebrides ; a.id in
Ireland from Co. Kerry, Co. We.\ford, Co. W'icklow,
Co. Carlow, and Co. Kildare.

Smith states that he found a nest in \orkshire,
and "on disturbing it the bees emitted a powerful
aromatic odour; the community, although it con-
tained males and females, was small.'

' Ca/ah^'iic of l/i,- British Ika in llie Co.'.'nlioit of the Ihitish Muscm:,
l>y I-'. Smitli, 2rnl Liliiimi (1S76] 1891, ji. 202.

M

\\

11

1*11' ■-■■

tliin
l!lll!!lH

¥A

bl \mb us DERHAMEL L L 'S

IS9

Suii-sKCTiON II. — Ciirdei-I<(es.

13. BOMBUS DERHAMELLUS, Kiib>-.
Red-shanked Carder-hce.

Synonym : -raiellus, Kirby.

OL'i:i;\. — Small; length 16-18 mm., expanse 21;-
32 mm.

Black, with the three last segments of the abdomen red.
The red is not so bri,L;ht as in lapiiliirius, and soon fades
to riist-ycllow. Hairs of the corbicula red.

Coat rather thin and uneven, not lon;^.

Worker. — ^Length 10-16 mm.

Resembles the queen except in size, but sometimes the
hairs of the corbicula are red only at the tips.

Mali;. — Length 13-14 mm., expanse 23-36 mm.

Head black, more or less tinged with grey. Thorax
black, generally with a dusky yellowish-grey band in front and
another behind. Abdomen black, with the 4th and following
segments red, and generally with the 1st and 2nd segments
more or less dusky yellowish-grey. The red is less bright
than in lapidaiius. Cf the male of Psitliyiiis rupestris.

In some specimens •'he 2ntl segment is bright yellow
or brownish -yellow. Sometimes the red spreads on to
the 3rd segment.

Coat rather thin and uneven, not long.

Antcnn;e rather long; length of llagellum 5| min.

Each of the joints of the antcnn;e, from thv 6th to the
I 2th, slightly swelled behind.

Tiie antenna' differ from those of sylvarum in having
the 3rd joint much longer than the 4th.

Armature distinct, but approaching that of sy/iurniiii.

/). dcrhantcllus is a widely-distributed species in
Great Britain and Ireland, and common in many
places, especially in the no;th of England. I have

11

I go

TflH HUMnLR-BEE

taken many nests, always on the surface of the
ground, and frecjuently in long- grass on roadside
banks. It commences to nest earlier than any
of the other carder- bees, even than
aoronim. The cocoons are deep
yellow, and the wax is very dark. In
i9ii I found three nests in a suffi-
ciently early stage to ascertain the
number and position of the cocoons
in the first batch. In each nest
they numbered eight, and they were
arranged symmetrically in exactly the same manner
—two in the middle, forming the bottom of the
queen's seat, and three on either side, at a higher
level, forming its sides, as shown in the diagram
{Fig. 28).

The queens are very fond of white dead-nettle :
this is one of the few species I have seen visiting
the flowers of the ground ivy, A'epeta i^lcchoma.

'I

ijii

5|t i!

VIII

nOMBCS SYLl'ARL-M

191

14. BOMBUS SYLVARUM, I.iiin.m^.
Shrill Cardcr-bec.

Qcr.KN. — Small : len-th 16. is mm., t'xpansc- 2.,-
33 mm.

The prcvailini; colour i> greenish-white, oftc-n with a
yellowish tin-c. On the top of the iica.l and in the centre
of the thorax this colour shades into black. On the 2nd seg-
ment of the abdomen there are traces of a black band, at least
at the sides ; the jrtl se-meiit is black with a narrow batul
of -reenish-whitc at it. cd-c ; 4th and following segments
orange, each with a narrow band u\ -rccnish-uhite at its
cd;.,'e.

The pale colour on the ix\(\ se;4mei;t often shades into
a deeper, more distinctly yellow tint, and there are often
black hairs at the base of the 4th scj;mcnt.

Coat rather thin and uneven, not Vmj^.

VVokKKR. — Lcn^^th 10-15 inm.
Resembles the queen e.xcept in si/.c.

M.M.K. — Len.;tii 13-14 mm.. e.\])ansc 2^2^ mm.

Coloured like the queen, but the red on the 4th sei,anent
is generrll)- displaced by black.

Oualit>- of coat as in /;. derliamellus.

.Antcnn;e as in dcflhinuuliis, but the 3rd joint ver\-
little louL^er than the 4th.

Armature distinct, but approachin- that of /;. ,/,■;■-
hanu-lltis.

This species is widely distributed in Fnoland
and Ireland, and ct)mnion in a o-ood many places,
but it appears to be rare in Scotland, and has not
been found in the north of .Scotland. The rpieens
and workers are very agile, both in the nest and
on the wing, and their hum is more shrill than that
of any other species. The nest is usuallv on the

. • \f^-i

192

TIIH IIUMBLF.-HI'I'

surf.icr of tht; Lcroiiml, l)ut I h;iv<- (iftcii tbuiid it
uiulcr tin; [^rouiul with a short timiirl, 'The (lucciis
appear rather late- in tht; spriii;^, aiul thi; colonies
are j^rent^rally anion^^ thi; last to hrc.ik iqi in the
aulmnn, the workers heiiiL; particularly industrious
on the August lloucrs. I'he w.ix is almost as li^ht-
coloured as that of /ii/>/i/iin'/is ; it is produced rather
sparingly, and is worked into thin sheets. Ihe
nest has as clean and tidy an appearance as that of
lapidarins. On the Contini'Ut then; is a variety of
sy/faniiii, naint-d )i/^n-S(i//\. that is colouretl exceed-
ingly like i/i-r//irj//c-//i/s.

Ainoni^ tht,' ta\"t)urile llt)wers ot />. sy/viintiu may
l)e mentioned rtnl barisia(/)'. odoii/iti-s) and Ccntaitrca

•

ili!i

W-

FLATK IV.

Bombus agrorum. Bombus helferanus. Bombay muscorum.

ALL NAILKAL M/l

■i !

f

I>

^i«r

i<'8 '

!!P!

J>(KU/>'i S .U,/<(^/<('M

■ '):-,

15. B0MBU8 AORORUM, I'.ibiiciu-^.

CilUllinll (' : ii 1 liii-,
NviK.nym mUSCOrum ( li"" • .1""'' "-; "• ^iii'lli-
ni-KKN. -Small ; lcn;.;tli i"-l^ """., «'Xi.,msc Zyy

11. a,! .L.thcd with a liuvtur.' ..f pair aii.l blao. Iiair>.
Thorax bright tawny yellow, Mil, u M,ii„whal paKr ; 1.1a. k
hair. .,tt.-,> ai.,Hai- an...»- llu- tau ny-> > 11. ,u- ; wh.n tlu-r
|,lacls hair, arc scare- tlu'v an' -ratlcrcd acroHS the front -I
Ih.- th..rax. wlu'u mimer..u. they f..rin a M,.,ty miukIi;.',
^haiK-a .omrwhal l.kr .i trian-lc, with its base on thr fPM <
„r th.- thorax, the hack part of the th..rax at llic sulcs
bi'in ' left more or less iinbl.ickcne.i.

(),i the al).!..men the general scheme orcLiur is— the
base pale yellow, the middle black, aiul the tail tawny ; luit
the colours frciuentlv etiCP.ach upon one .another, pro-
.luciiv a -roat varieiv <.f i.atterns. l-; a comm..n varuty
the black extends up and d.mn the side. ..f the al>donu'n ;
in some cases llu- tawny clour spreads at tlie s,ame tnne
un lo the middle ,)f the .ibd.Mnen, producin;; a uinquc
p.atlern. in another ommon variety the whole ,d.d,.nien
is black, with th.c ed-es of the se-ments more or le.s
frin.'cdwith pale yell., .V, t!-e frinj'es b, i, , . 'Klest on the
apical se-ments; this p.il.- yelL.w may spread o^<•r the
wh..le ofthe abdomen, causiii- the bee to resemble a
somewlial fa.lcd In-lf.-ranns or inu^.ornm, but sprcmiens
that show no black h.iirs at the sides of the U.l and 4th
..Clements are rare.
" The coal is ratlier thin, uneven, and moderately l,)n-.

\\(irki:k. I.cM;^tli 1 0-1 ;; mm.
Only diflVrs from the cjucen in si/e.

Mvi.K. I-en-th 13-14 mm., expanse Zi,-!! mm.
Coloured like the queen.

(.'..at rather Ion- and rather uneven.

O

i t|

194

Tin- Hl'MBLE-BKF.

vin

:■ .if'l

;;.l: !

AntcniKu u illi each joint of the flagellum much swollen
in the middle behind. I.ciii;lh of lla^ellum 5| mm.
Armature ili.;tinct.

This species is ve-y common throughout the
United Kingdom, but there is no record of it from
Orkney or Shethuid. Its nest is on the surf;ice of
the ground, often in grass or under ivy, and, like
/^raL'niiu, it prefers to dwell in woods rather than
in o[)en country. I have found nests in the thatch
of a cow-lodge, in a tuft of pampas grass, in the
grul)l)etl-up stump of a tree, in a robin's nest, in an
old shoe, and in a decayed and broken kettle, but
never under the groimd.

In most si)ecimens from the Dover district the
thorax is more or less blackened. The rt-markable
arrangement of colour in which the whole up[)er
side is tawny except the ist segment and base ol
the 2nd segment (which are pale yellow), with black
at the sides of each of the segments e.xceiJt the bth,
approaches that of the Norwegian vari(;ty air/iciis,
and has a[)peared in several workers fotmd in a
nest at Ripple.

In the south of France the whole upper side
is orange (var. pasrnoniDi), while in Zealand it is
perfectly black (var. niuioniiii).

I«i

111

BOMIU 'S HJiLFERAXL '.V

195

16. BOMBUS HELFERANUS, Seidl.

])io\\ n h.itnltMl ( 'ardcr-hii.'.

= ■'■■5, '-niiili, ihn aNo includes />'. Diu^iOi iiin \
:i ' !■. , Vf-ru'.S^'ns, S.u^ldL■r^.

.1 : 'r;i.;th 16- iS mm., expanse ^o-

Syp.onyms : — -veP".
variabilis, Scln. ,:■■■:

(Jri;i;N. — ■ 1
3 J mm.

The colouring resembles t&at of />'. iiiit.u;<ruiii tlic dcscri])-
lion of which slioiiki be "oiisultcd , and of h'Ljlit examples
of /.'. (ii^roriiiii.

Head clothed with ver\- paie hairs, often mixed witli
bl.ick, especially on to]) and .iround the e^'es.

Tint of the thorax on top somewhat richer than in l)riL;ht
specimens of iit^^ro, iiiii, namel}- orange-brown, but tiiis suon
fades : black liairs utten appe.ir amoni^ the oran;4e-bro\\ 11 ;
wlien these black hairs are scarce sometimes the_\- are so
tew that a Ie!is is needed to detect them the\- are con-
fineii to the ie;_;i<)n just above and in front of the roi.ts (.f
the win,L;s ; when jilenliful tiie\- are scattered evenl\- all
o\H;r the orani^cdjrown, excc[)t in the centre.

Abdomen pale yellow, ilin^^y white in immature examples,
and i)alc brown in fadcil ones, with a bnwn band on the 2nd
segment, a narrower and nuicli fainter one on the 3rd sc.;-
nient, this beiuL;' often scarcely discernible and in fre>li
specimens tin^'ed with lemon, and sometime.^ a still
narrower and fainter one on the 4th seL;inent ■ last sc.j;-
nient black. In dark sj)ccimens the colourin;^- of the
abdomen becomes somewhat darker, but black hairs never
appear amon;j; the pale ones a^ in <ii;r,>ni»i.

Coat rather shorter and le-s sIkp^l;)- tiian in <J::;ivniii!.

WcKKEi;. — LciiL^tli 10-15 '"'"■

Resembles tlic (]ueen except in si/e. \'erv dark
specimens are occasioii.dK- foimd.

M.M.K. — Leu'^th 13-14 nnn., expanse J4-J7 mm.
Coloured like the queen.

196

TMI". 11UM1'.L1:-Bi:i'

i

("(lilt sdincwhat sliortcr ami le^^s sha!4;4y than in

Joints of the antcnn.i' less swollen behind than in
il^rrnitit \ len;_;th of tla;4ellinn 5 .1 nnn.

Ann.ituie distinct, but approachiiv^ that of />. iina-
(Vriiiii.

Tills si)t;cies has W-vn so much conhiscd with
/)'. lUHSiontiii that llic extent of its distrihution in
tlie United Kingtloni is V(;ry impertectly known.
It is not rare in the Dovt^r district, and has
been taken, not uncommonly, in various localities
in Suffolk, Camhritli^^eshire. Sussex, Oxfordshire,
Ham[)shire, and Devonshire. It probably occurs
throu_t,du)ut the south and east of luioland. I have
seen ii specimen from Manchester, and another from
llelsby in Cheshire, but know of no other captur(;s
in th(; north. All the siqiposed Irish examples that
I have seen have been J>. imisioi-iiiii.

In I-"a.,t Kent ihc ([ueens ;'ppear later in the
sprinor [i,;in those of any other species, generally
not until Jime. All the nests that I have t.iken
have been on th(? surface of the groimd.

The very mild tctmper of this species is in stroniL;-
contrast to the reveni;eful disposition ot /A niiis-
contiH.

On the Continent the colom-ino; of this s[)ecies is
verv variable, a black variety I)ein,o; common in many
pl.ices : this has not been met with in I'".nL;land.

J!0.]//iCS MCSCi^RCM

197

17. BJMBUS MUSCORUM, Liimu-us.
Large (,';ir(lt;r-!)L-c.

.S\nonym>: venustus, Sriiith, llji^ ;il-'> in. hult.- /,'. /iJf, y, 11:11 ■. :
cognatus stcvi n-,), ac nKim- to s. hmieili-kiifi lit ; smithianus,
White.

Oii:i;n.-- Sli^'hll)- larger than !'>. a^^roniin and /«'. hil-
/criiiiHS ; 1ciil;11i iS-1'_^ iiiiii., c.\]j;iii,-(.- 33-^5 mm.

The coluui-iiiL,' lias hillicrto been <.ui;ij(isc(1 Id be iiulis-
tiiv.4ui.>liab!c from that of /<'. //,-I/i-ra>ius, but after haviii^r
bred ami compared many e.\am[)le^ of cacli sjiccie^, 1
notice tliat the followiii!.; differences are coiist.int, and it
will probably be found that they arc sufficient for idt:iui-
fication in e\er\- ca^c.

The orange-brown on the thorax never has any black hairs
mixed with it; iti a^^toruiit and hclftratuis black hairs are
frequentl)- present.

In specimens from Knj^latid the orange-brown on the
thorax is more or less encroached upon from in front and from
behind by very pale yellow, this crilour in immature
^peciineiis beiii;4 almost white, and in faded ones pale
brown ; this is the \'ariet\- s.\iilt->i! of \'o.:^'t. Init in s])eci-
inens from Scotlaiul there i- iittle or no encroachment of
jjale hair<, atid the oratv^^e-brcjwn is sli^jhtly redder than
in the scjuth of Kn'_;!and ; this is the variet\- piilliilits of
Evans.

The abdomen is slij;hti\" yellower than in ltt'ltn-t>ui(s.
The brown band on the 2nd segment andi the faint> r <ir;e on
the 3rd sei^ment arc much lighter and more diffuse than in
Iu\'/t>;n!iis, in lact the\' are u--ually oidy faintlv disiernible ;
in perfectly fresh speciir.cns th.ey are often of a beautiful
brownish '(-mon colour which i^ \ery cvaticscent and --oon
lades to pale brown. The Irtirs (jii tlie 2tid -^eLjment look
darker than they really ,ire on accoiitit of their erectness.

The coat is slightly longer, slightly more even, and
slightly denser than in h,:lfcyanii<. and d.ensvr and more

e\C!i than in

r,7»(. in s;iec:ine!is from the ~(juth of

■ i

■f
i i\

- ^ I

I

■!!l!

Mi!

'in

f ■ <

i()S

riii<: iiuMr.Li'-nKi'

ICn-laiul tlic cn.it is sli.^luly sliditcr thiin in incus

frcini Sccitlaiul. Ha>al pari nf hind iiK'tatarM - ilis-

tiiirtly civ^ravcd tiian in lulti-raints and tii:;yi>ri(,

\\\A\ examples arc intrnncili ate bet ween the Imi-HsIi
and Scuttish varieties.

WdKKKK. — I.en;4tii U)-i'> uini.
Only dilTers iVoni tlie qneen in si/e.

Mali:.— Shghtly larger than />'. iielfciduns \ leii-th 14-
1 3 mm., i.'\panse jTi-jS nun.

Coloured like the queen, but there i-, little or no trace of
bands oil the abdomen, ami in brii;ht fresh si)ecimens die
abdomen is thislud with li'mon ; this eoloiir, liowever, soon
becomes diii;-;y, fulini^ to p.de brown.

Coat slightly longer, slightly more even, and slightly denser
than in Iiilt,i\ii!iis:.

Joints of the antcnn.e sli-htl\- swollen behind, as in
htlfcraiiHS \ \c\v^\.\\ of llaL^ellum 5,', mm.

.\rmature distinct, but apprc-achiiii; that of B. Iicl-
fcrauHX ; amoiiL,' other differences the forceps at their
extremities are broader and blunter tlian in hi-lj,-rciuiis.

A male taken at Loo Hridue, iri sout'i-west Ireland, by
Col. Verhiiry, had the thorax dark eliestnut-hrown ;uui the coat
ucnerally of a biownish tinge. — {F.nt. Mun. J/,ix. for ii)0-% p. 54.)

4I '. '

Ml

/>'. nniscoriDii is not an abundant species, but it
is distributed throughout the kingdom. It is more
common in Scotland and Irehmd than in Enghmd.
In Kent, and probably in other southern and eastern
counties, it is chicitly confined to marshy districts. I
have taken it in Romney Marsh on the tlowers of
the marsh mallow, and at Rii)[)le I occasionally met
with specimens in clover fields, most ot which have
probaijly strayed from the marshes near Deal.

In [uly 191 I, having been infotnied by some

JUhMJiCS MCSCO/xCM

•99

l.ihourcrs in these iiiarslics who were mowinLj the
hay there, tiiat they rref|uently came across \.\\v. nests
of a savaifi" vellow Ijee which they feared to disturb
more than a wasp's nest, I asked them when tiie\
ne\t tounil a nest to let me know, and on July 21
was summoned to take two nests, hoth of this
s[)''cies, situated oidy rdiout ten yards apart in a hay
t'leld. .So Lrr(;at wa-, the men'^ fear of ^-ettiii'j; stuns/
that they chil not dare; to approach near enouL;li to
>liou me th(; exact spots, and I found that, as soon
:is I cHsturhed the nests, the workers llew roimd \w\
head in a most menacing; manner : they also had th<;
disac,'reeahl<,' trick of persistiiiLJ in doiiiLj this, follow-
\\v^ nif; wherever I went for a niinute or two. In
tiiis way the; workers of iiniscoi-itiii i^ehavt; (piite
differently to thf)se of /(•/■rt\'//-is, whicdi only attack the
lower part of the body and will not follow oiu: to
any L^reat tlistance. It was, howe\er, quite (nis\- to
remove both nests without i^ettini,^ stunt; l)y takint,'
care not to disturb them much until nearly all the bees
had been ca[)tured. The nest material was dead
y;rass blades, and the stroni,M:r nest contained 52
workers, but not nearly <dl the workers had enKjryed.
There were two waxen honey-pots of a rej^'ular, tall,
and slender shape, attaclied to the outside ol the
comb at some distance from one another. The
cocoons were of the same pale-yellow tint as th(jse
of hclft'yanus ; the wax was a shade darkt^r than that
of hclfcraiius. The nests wen; transferr(.-tl to my
ijarden, but the}- did not flourish well there owing,
perhaps, to the hot, dry weather that [prevailed, for

IP

I

200

'nil' iiiiMiu.i:-in:i'.

I.: 1

1 li.ivi' iKHicH'd ihis si)(.'ciL;s t(j he coiumoiu^sl in il.un[)
colli seasons.

In Co. Annai^h tlur Rev. \V. 1\ Jt)hiisoii foiiiul
ihv. nests in Ava'\) moss.

B. miiscorum, v.irioty smithianus, W'liitc.

Tliis is ,1 variety fmiiul in the .Shetland islands. 1 1
is larj^er th.m the mainland form : len;4th of the queen
IQ-20 nnn., c\\-i)anse 34-.S'' mm., leiv_;th of tlie male 15-
I T) mm, I'he cjueen and worker have the iiead (except a
few hairs on top , the underside of the thorax, the under-
side of the abdomen, and the legs clothed with black instead
of pale hairs ; aNo the orani^c-brow n of the np[)er side of
the thora.\ is of ;'. somewhat richer lint than in the main-
land variety-, and it is not hnrtlcrcd witli pale liairs • .u)i\
the abdomen is more di^tinclK- lemuii-yellow. 'I'he male is
coloured like the (lueon, e\ce[)t that he L^encraily has a tuft
of lemon-yellow on the lower part of tlie face, some j-ellow
on the top of the head, and the uiuierside of the abdomen
partly pale.

The coat is lon^;er in this v.u'iety than in the mainland
form.

Specimens with a black underside have also been taken
in Lewis in the Hebrides. The variety occurs, too, in
Norwa>-. Hut specimens tVom Stromness, Orkney, show
only traces of black on the face, underside, and lci;s,
a' 'ioU'.jh the coat is lontjf.

In the Satmtlei-.s' Collection at the British Museum
there is a specimen from St. Mary's, Scilly, of the
.South of Kni;land variety, havini; the undersitle
black, and the le^s partly so.

The Rev. 1*". I). Morice found siuit/iianiis nesting
in stone walls in Shetland.

liOMIllS rOMORIM

20 1

\)()V\\'\\VA. liknisii sri:(ii;.s.

BOMBUS POMORUM, I'an/cr.

Ai'i/!'' 1 luiiitiic lice.

'jri,i;.\. I,<-ir.'tl! 17-iX i;iin, cxiian^c alxuit ^5 mm.

II(a>l Ijlack Thorax black, with ati iiuii^tiiict palc-
_\'ciiii\v Ijaiid ill front ancl at.otli'.r hchiiid tl5e->c hamU ma_\-
!)'■ ahsi ;i; . Abdomen red, \'. i;li ili'- 1st segment and ])()-.^il)l\-
the 2111I inon or Ic^-, black, the black gradually shading into
the red. Hairs on thi; corhii uia 'jlacls', " frciiiiciitlv tipped
withi }-(llou i^h-rcd " IlotTi;r .

Coat unc\fn and imich -hortf'r than in Iii/'fniiiius.

Head long, shaped much a- in nii/rr.itiis. thi- cli-i-k-- hciiiL^-
i'-n'_;. but their ieiy^th i-, le--, tiian half that of the c\-cs.

W'l il;Ki;i;. — I'robabA- (h'ffer- from thi; (juocn oiil\- in

M.\t.K. — Len;4tii X^-i<'> mm., c\[)an-<e 2<'i-2j inm.
Sliap': r.itlier slender lii^c that of !,,tr,!'l.llns.

Head black. Thorax black, with a dingy yellowisb-grey
band in front and another behind. .Xbih-mcn with the .ist
segment yellowish-grey and the remaining segments red, tliis
CMi.,ur l)fiiv4 darker on the- 2nd -c.;rnent than on the re^t
..■I the a!)d(jmen.

Coat rather uneven and rath.er ~'iort, e>.[)eeially on the
abdomen. Hairs on th.e le,;- di'.rf. The < U-prus i- h;iir-

CNce;)t ,it th.e side- and on to; . .md ilv mandibles

are

unbearded.

Cheeks long as in the queen. Hind, tibi.e con\ex and
covered with -hr.rt liair-

.Antenn.e of med.ium le;i;.;th ; ;cn.;th ^A fla;.Mj!lum
5 mm.

.\rmature distii'.ct.

It is a questit.m whether this ^ipecies oti;4ht to be
retained in the IJritish hst. Smith caui^ht three

t i

::o;

riii: in'Miii.i i'.i:i'

Mil

ml ;■?

I

iiliy

inalrs in iS;,;' or in iSo;,' wliic h of these dales is
not lie, ir, ,nul liis son a (lueeii in iS().|, near Meal,
l)nt no olher ia|iliires liave lieeii recordetl. I lie
sj)ei:ies oci-iirs in reiuial l''.uro|n'. In the nioiinlaiiis
ot Suit/erland and Austria, .1 v.uiety havinn the
\vh(»U! (-i).it \ ellouish-ert-y with tlu! e\ce|)tion ol ,1
hlack l),nid .uross tlu; middle ot" the thoiM.x is to he
found.

Holler look three nests of the red-tailinl form on
the Cieierk(\^cl in St\ ria. The)- were all under the
i^round, ,ind in two iA theni he noticed what h(^
called "iHilleii cylinders." In one of the nests with
about ^^(X) cells there were twelve of these pollen
c\liiulers. They always stood at the end of a .^roup
ot cells, hut as the nature; (-1" these cells is not e.\-
pl.iineil it is not clear whether the species is a pollen-
storer or a pocket-maker. The convex hind tibia-
ot the m,iU; anil the lonj;^ cheeks indic.ite that it
IS probably a [Kickel-maker occupyiuL!^ an internu:-
iliate [josition between the poll-n-prinicrs and the
carder-bees.

/:',/. . /.'.v/.v,;,' lor l.-M'^, ]\ 95.
- C" ;/;.'> ^.7,- ,y /i'/.'.'.i /h,s, Jlii t'.lilii-i! ]i. jot!.

(ii;\('s rsiriiYKis

203

GENUS PSITHYRUS, I.( prlcti. r.

Symji.yin ApathuS ( N f-uii;,n ,

Distinction between Bombus and Psithyrus.

(jri;i'.N-. — /'u///yn(s (|u<:(:ns may \>v. rcatlily
kiKnvii from lioi)iliit<. f|uc<-iis by the absence ot the
l)ollen-i;(illectin(^f organs on tlie hind le.!^''s, the outer
side of the tibia being convex, dull, and clothed all over,

though not t.,.ckly, with hairs, not flattened, bare, and
shinin^r jn the middle as in l-ionihits. ; antl the comb
at the apex of the tibia and the auricle at the base of
the metatarsus being absent.

In the P.sithynis (jueens the apex of the abdomen
is more or less incurved, and close to it, on the 6th
ventral segment, i.e. ow the last segment on the
underside, there is a pair of elevations, the shape of
vv'hich differs widely in each of the well marked species,

\ 'A

If

1 ^! ' ,i ;«

:;r i

'.it !

1,^

1:

20\

riii". iirMiu.i: i'.i:i'.

Vill

ami is \cry licipliil in (listiiimiisliiii;^ ihcin Irom oiic
aiidtiu:! .

1 lu- ci>at is less dciisc than in the Inuiihti^ (|iicciis,
the hair being particularly scanty on the abdomen,

Ps rupestn's P^- barbutellus

Ps. ve stalls

Ps. campestris

1 1' I'l

Ps. distihctus

Ps. quadricolor

which in the iniddlc looks almost l)are ; also the
hairs arc somcuhal coarser than in Bouilnts.

I'<ithynis (juccns usually have their win^^s more
clouded than /loiu/nis queens, and they mav tj^enerally
be reco-nisetl in the field by their weaker llight with
its distinctly lower-pitched and softer hum.

CI. MS /'S/77/)/<lS

205

M All ■^. - riic Ixr^'iiiiMT (Iocs not tiiul it easy to
(lislinL^iiisli tin: /\if/ivrii^ mal'.-s Iroin llmst; ot
nomlnis ihiT'- Ijciii;^- no v>Ty striking characters
to rely upon. .\t fir-^t L^lancc th(;y ilitlcr most
noticcalily in their soniculiat thinner and coarser
coats, au'l particularly in their more shining, because
1f>s3 densely clothed, abdomens. When the ist segment
i>. clothed with yell \v hairs the hriL;htness of the
yelhnv is reduced h\- the ijlack skin underneath,
llie lace is rounder and shorter than in the males
ot most species o| ISomi'ii-'. The torceps ot the
armature ,ire pale and niemhr.uious, while in /<i>iu/iiis
they are hrown and horny. .Some of tin: best dis-
tin;,niishin<^f charact'i i .m: to he seen in the hind
tibiae: these, as in the temales, are, on the outer
side, transversely convex and hairy all over, while in
the males of lUviibiK the tibia- are flattened, bare (or
almost so) in the centre, and more shining than in
/'^i/Iivnis. e.xcept in the males ot the cartler-hees,
which in respect of these tibial characters occujiy
an intermediate position ; but as th.e males of the
c.irderdjces have th.e joints of the antenna- swelled
underneath (oi-ily the I.ist six joints in />'. dcrlia-
})icll:is and />'. sylva>-imi\, a peculiarity not tound in
the /'sif/iyn antl in the other Iloiul'/, thev can easily
be excluded from coni[.'arison.

< I

iff

4

It'

m

i.'iii

l''3i

linf-

;o')

Tin: nrMiuj'.-ur.i: vu.

1. PSITHYRUS RUPE8TRI8 I alu iciii-.

()ii:iN. I..iri^o; leii-tli -'o-j 3 iiiiu., c\|>,inM- 40-45
mm ; ^oiin'tniu's sm.illiT.

Black, with the 4th and following segments of the abdomen
red. '\hv ml is loss bri:4ht th;in in /.'. lapui.oins.

TIktc is (>cc,isi()ii;iliy a diii;^)- \cllou isli--rcy batul
an-oss the front of tin- tlmrax.

Wings dark brown, llui^ .l.ukcr tii.iii in .ins- hUkt
species.

Tlie (A\\ iloisal segment is tiiill and is cdveied uitli
vi'r>- short red liairs.

I'hc cU'valions c.!i the sides oi' the ^tli ventr.il -ei;meiit
are viry i)r()minent and form an;.^ular win^^s, wliicii pro-
ject so iar that tliey can i)e seen plainl>- on eiliier side
when the tip of the abdomen is viewed troin above.

M.vl.l.. I.enu;th 15-17 mm., exiianse 30 33 mm.

Head l)lack. Thor.i.x iilack, usually with indistinc:t
yellowish-grey bands in front and behind. .Abdomen bl.iek ;
with the sides and edges of the 1st and 2nd segment usually
more or less yellowish-;4rey, and with the 4th and follow-
in"- S'v^menls red. The red u-ually extends on lo the
3rd sc'^meiU where it shades into the black ; it is less
bri-ht tlimi in />. lapidayiiis. in some specimens there is
no yellowish-L;rey on the thorax and abtlomen.

C'o.it r.ither Ioiil;, uneven, and rather co.irse.

Antcnn.e rather short ; len:.4th of llai^ellum 5 mm.
This sjjecies may be easily known from the male of />'.
dcrhaiiicllus, which in coloration it much resembles, b\-
the thicker and shorter antenn;e and somewhat loii'^a'r
coat. The antenn.e are thicker than in />. Lipiiiariiis.

Armature distinct.

A specimen t< the m.ilu sent me from Coirhester is entirely
black. .Xnothur taken at KippU; lias tlie abdomen red except the
lit -.eKnient.

This large species is parasitic on Bomhus ':ipi-

J' LA IK V

Psithyrus distinctus. Psithyrus barbulellus

Psithyrus campestris. Psithyrus quadricolor

■^vA-:

11

i

ill

::.!■!.: ms

til ii'!

•! .>

PSirilYRUS RUPESTRIS 207

dariiis and is to be found in most )ilaces where its
host is abundant. It is plentiful in East Kent,
where it victimises from 20 to 40 per cent of the
colonies of B. lapidarius. It is also particularly
common in many parts of Suffolk and Norfolk. In
Ireland it has been recorded from Co. Cork, Co.
Limerirk, and Co. Sligo. The variety of the female
having a \ lU: band on the thorax is rare, but it
occurs occasionally at Ripple, and has been taken
near Norwich.

This is the latest of all the hiunble-bees to
awaken in the spring ; it may be seen throughout
June searching for the nests of />. lapidarins.

I :

■J'.i.:

THE HUMBLE-REE

2. PSITHYEUS VESTALIS, Foucrier.

Oui'.EX. — Lai-i^c ; length 20-22 mm., expanse 40-43
mm. ; sometimes smaller.

Head black. Thorax black, with a deep yellow Soften
brownish-yellow) band in front. Abdomen black ; with the
3rd segment lemon-yellow on the sides, except at the base.
4th segment white, 5th segment white on the sides. The
dee[) j-cllow b.ind on the thorax is often narrow and
darkened.

6th dorsal sey;mcnt shinin<T.

The elevations on the sides of the 6th ventral sci,rment
arc rid;4c-like and rounded, and converge toward the apex
but they do not nearly meet there, and the s()acc between
them there is thickly covered with short, velvety, golden
hairs.

M.M.K. — Length 15-1" mm., expanse 30-33 mm.

Head black, often with a few yellow hairs on top.
Thorax black, with a yellow band in front and sometimes a
tew yellow hairs behind. Abdomen black ; with sometimes
the 1st segment yellow (this band is not very prominent
oA-ing to the paucity of the hairs ; with the 3rd segment
yellow, but black in the middle at the ba.se ; and with
the 4th and 5th segments white, the 6th segment more or
less black in the middle and white at the sides, and the
"th more or less black.

Coat rather short ; and differing from that of every other
species of Psithyrus in being even, not shaggy.

Antennae long and thick ; length of flagellum 6 mm
The 3rd joint of the antennae is much shorter than the 5th
joint, which almost equals the 3rd and 4th together.

Armature \er\- like that of /'.v. distitKtiis, but the iinier
border of the forceps is densely fringed with short stiff
h.iirs.

la ?

I I

This species prc^ys on Boutbus lerrestris. It is
verv common in the south and east of Entrland, and

VIII

PSITHYRUS VESTALIS

209

probably occurs wherever Ih tcrrestris is abundant.
In the north, however, it is displaced by its close
ally Ps. distinclHS, with which many collectors have
hitherto confused it.

The only Irish specimen I have seen is a female
in the Irish Nationa' .Museum, taken by Mr. PacU-
Beresford at Fenagh, Co. Carlow.

. !

'Sk

iS

m

m'

am

■m-

lo THK HUMBLE-BEE

3. PSITHYRUS DISTINCTUS, rcrez.
Closely related to and much resciTibliivj; /'s. vcstulis.

Or KKN. -Smaller than Ps. n'sta/is ; len;4th 18-20 n:in.,
expanse i^'^-yj mm. ; sometimes smaller.

The coloration resembles that of Ps. irs/a/is. but the tint
of the yellow band on the front of the thorax is lighter and is
best described as dull lemon ; this band is always broad :
sometimes there arc a few pale yellow or yellow-tippeil
hairs behind the wings and at the back of the thorax.
On the back of the thorax and on the edges of the 1st and
2nd segments of the abdomen the black shades into dark grey
(brown in faded specimens^ or sometimes into a i)aler
tint. The yellow at the sides of the 3rd segment is very pale
antl soon fades to white.

A giant specimen from Aviemore, in the Saunders'
Collection, has a narrow yellow band on the back of the
thorax and the i st segment of the abdomen yellow on the
base at its side"..

The coat is denser and, in proportion to the size of
the insect, somewhat longer than in vt-stn/is. The meta-
tarsi of the hind legs are somewhat shorter than in
Vi-st,rlis : in (iistimtiis the length of this joint is equal to
that of all the tarsi together, but in lus/alis it is somewhat
longer than these.

The 6th dorsal .segment (seen througii a good lens is
very faintly and shallowly jjunctured ; in vistnlis it is
more deeply punctured, especially at the sides.

The elevations on the sitics of the 6th ventral segment
are shai)ed very much a. in zislalis, but they are rather
higher towards the apex and the golden haTs there arc
shorter.

;\I \i i;. — About the same -ize as vi'sta/is : length 15-
17 mm., expanse _' 11-32 mm.

Coloured like z'.'.vA/Z/.v, except that the yellow on the head
thorax, and base of the abdomen is of a lighter tinge, almost
sulphur-yellow in fresh specimens, and is more extensive.

IS

is

PSITHYRUS DISTINCTUS 211

ami the yellow on the 3rd sc-incnt is paler, soon fadini,r
to white. In fact, the coloration is very like that of /'l!
barbutcllus.

Head black, with some yellow hairs on top. Thorax
black, with a yellow band in front and some yellow hairs
-cncrally sufficient to form a narrow band, behind'
Abdomen black; with the ist sc-ment yellow 3rd
se-ment li-ht \-ellow, soon fa.lin- to white, but black in
the middle and at the base ; 4th and 5th sc-mcnts and
sides of the 6th sc-mcnt white. A variety occurs in which
the 4th and 5th segments and sides of the 6th segment are
yellow.

Coat longer, much less even and somewhat denser than in

Ps. vest aits

I .lllll Pi. Ji,iiiu/us < .

vcstalis-^\\\Q.^c differences combined are very noticeable.
The coat is somewhat shorter, somewhat denser, and .some-
what finer than in Ihirbntdlus. Hairs on the legs longer
than in vcslalis.

Hind metatarsi slightly shorter than in vestalis.
The best characters for distinguishing distiiictiis from
vt-stalis lie in the male antennae. These are much shorter
than in vestalis — length of flagellum 5 mm. — and have the
3rd joint about as long as the 5th, the 5th being much shorter
than the 3rd and 4th together.

Armature like that of vestalis ; but there arc sli.rbt
ilifferenccs in the relative dimensions of the parts, and the
inner margins of the forceps arc less hairy, especial!}-
towards the base.

I took Ps. disliiulus pleiuifully at Colinton, near

I II

3i

Ui

liii

21 2

THE humble-hi:k

VIII

lil i\

Edinburgh, in 1895; it has also been found freely
around Rugby by the Rev. E. D. Morice, and
in the neighbourhood of Belfast by Mr. H. L.
Orr. In East Kent, however, I have taken no
specimens except one giant male, nor have
I found it on collecting e.xcursions in West
Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. Probably, therefore,
it is rare in the south-east of England, but
common in many places in the midlands and
north.

It has been taken in Cornwall, and a male of
the yellow -tailed variety has been sent me by
Mr. Cunningham from Cargill in Perthshire.

I have seen e.xamples (all white-tailed) from
several pl^ires in Ireland.

(^ne would expect Ps. distinctiis to breed in the
nests of Bombus lucorntii, and this supposition i.s
favoured by the fact that at Edinburgh and Belfast
Ji. lucoruni is much more abundant than B. tcr-
rcstris. To settle the question Mr. Orr kindly
sent me a living distinclits queen from Belfast on
June 6, 191 1, and I introduced her to a small
/uconiiii colony whose queen was dying. She
made herself at home immediately, and subse-
quently produced 48 young, 34 being males and
14 females; the females were produced after the
males.

It is remarkable in how many details the dif-
ferentiation between Ps. Z'cs/a/is and Ps. iHs/inc(us
corresponds with that which exists between thi-ir
respective hosts B. tcrrcstris and /luonciii ; lor

III 1

PSITIIYRUS DISTINCTCS 213
instance, in the tint and tendency to spread of the
yellow, in the length and evenness of the coat, and
in the si/e of the queens. In each case the differ-
ences are evidently of the same nature and. it can
hardly be doubted, have been induced by the same
causes.

1
{

'

:

1

i

<

j !

i i
- 1

, I

J

hiff!

, r;i:

iHt

II!

Si^ i

214 THK HUMBIJ-BRE v..i

4. PSITHYRUS BARBUTELLUS, Kirln-.

Oli:I',n. — Of medium si/c ; Iciv^nh 17-19 "I'li., ex-
panse 3*^-39 mm. ; sometimes smaller.

Head black, with some dull yellow hairs on top. Thorax
black, with a dull yellow band in front and a narrow one
behind. .Abdomen black, with sometimes some dull \ello\v
on the 1st se;4ment, and with the 4th and 5th segments,
sometimes also the ed^L^e of tlie 311I segment, white.

The 6th dorsal se;4mcnt has a dull shine, is pimctur'^d,
aiKi bears a faint raised line down its centre.

The elevations on the 6th ventral segment form a trans-
verse, crescent-shaped mark, which tloes not nearl\- reacli to
the apex of the seLjment, ami has a narrow division in the
mitldle ; between the crescent and the ape.x the segment
is clothed with short velvety ijoUlen-brown hairs. The
crescent-shaped elevation afforils an easy means of dis-
tinguishing this species from all others.

M.M.E. — I.ent^th 15-16,', mm., exjianse 29-33 mm.

Head black, with soine yellow hairs oti top. Thorax
black, with a yellow band in front and a narrow yellow band
behind. Abdomen black, with the 1st segment more or less
yellow ; the 4th and 5th segments white ; the 6th white at the
sides, black in the mitldle ; 7th more or less black. The
white often cxtend.s on to the 3rd sei^mcnt.

The coloration is therefore very like that of /'.v. dis-
tifhtus, except that there is no definite tinge of yellow on
the sides of the 3rd segment ; in very fresh spccimeiis, how-
ever, the white area is sometimes faintly tinged at its base
with yellow, but this soon fades away.

Coat uneven — ratlicr sliorter than in disthictus ; the
hairs slightly stiffer, slightly coarser, ami slightly less
dense than in disliiutiis.

On the 6th ventral segment, near the apex, there is a slight
mound on either side of the middle.

Hind metatarsi mcjre slender and longer than in dis-

psniiYRrs BARBrriiLLrs J15

tiihtHS\ they arc distiiictl)- narrower tliaii the tibi.e, wliilc
ill liistiihtHS tlic)- are scarcely sd.

Aiitemi.e ratlicr short, a tritic loii-cr than in disliiuliis ;
len-th of tlaj^elhiin 5 [ mm. The 3rd joint of the antennae
is shorter than the 5th.

.\rmatiirc distinct. 'l"i[)s of the forceps bhniter tlian
in :;s/(i//s and t//\//>/,//ix.

/^s. barbutclliis is parasitic 011 />'. hortonttit.
Although widely distributed, it is not very conuiion
in most places. At KippK; it is never so abundant
as Ps. nt/ycs/ris and /V. ivs/a/is. In Ireland it has
been recorded from Co. Kerry, Co. Dublin, and
Co. Armagh.

nil

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( = :.;}

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16 rill': iii'MHLFMu:!':

VIII

5. P8ITHYRUS CAMPE8TRIS, I'.iii/. 1.

01,'1;i:N.-- Modinm si/cd ; Ioii,L;th 17-1S.', mm., I'Xpaii.-ii.'
.^j-^S mm. ; soiiutiiiu's smaller.

Ill light specimens tlic hc.ul is black, witli a fru \-(lln\v
liairs on top ; thorax black, with a wide yellow band in front
and a rather wide yellow band, often li.irkened, behind.
Abdomen bl.ick, u ith the sidi's of the 3rd seL^nieiit except
at the base , ami the sides of the 4th and 5th segments
yellow.

This species is very liable to darken : tlie \ello\v band
on the back of tlie thorax disappears fust, then the front
band on the tliorax, and lastl\- tlie yellow on the tail.

Coat rather thinner, and the h.iirs sh'i^htl)- coarser and
stifter tiiaii in an\- otiier hiiml)led)ee. All the segments of
the abdomen are almost bare in the middle.

(iih se;^ment bare and shiiiiiit;, punctured towards ijie
apex.

The elevations on the 6th ventral segment are rounded and
wide and together form a V-shaped mark, with a deep division
in the middle.

M.\i,i'. — Leni^th 15-16 mm., expanse 2S-31 mm.

In light specimens tiie head is black, witii some yellow
hairs on top ; thorax black, with a wide yellow band in front,
and another wide one behind ; abdomen yellow, with the 2nd
segment black, but \ellow at the edi;e except in the middle,
the C)tii sci^Miicnt often black in the middle, and tlie 7th
sci;ment black. The yellow on the 1st se-inent is
obscure. Cf the male of />'. lati;-ill,-llus.

In dark specimens the whole insect is iisuall\- black, with
the exception of the 4th and 5th segments which are deep
sooty yellow, interru[)tcd in the middle with black. These
.•^c;4meiits to ) are sometimes black.

Ilairs sjiolitly co.arser and sli;^htly stifler than in any
other luiiiulc-bee. The 6th ventral segment is slij^htlx-
channelletl down the mitldic ami bears on either side a tuft
of long black hairs.

rSITIIVRl 'S CAMPIISTRIS

Antenna long ; length f.f na;^c!liim ''. [ mm. Tlie 4tli
joitit f)f thij aiitctm.L- is vcr>- sli.rlitly sliortcr than tlu; jnl :
the 5th joint is almost as Uju- as tlic jrd and 4th
together.

Armature (h'stinct.

A \v^\\\ in, lie from CIioI)Ikimi, .Si;iii y, in llic S.iiiniler^' CnlI«Tti..n,
li.i-. llif ttliolc 2111I • -mc-nl \cllijw uitli the; (•x( tptioii of ,1 f.w blark
liair-. 1)11 Us -.iilc!,.

I's. campcstri:; is widely distrihuteil in I'"iij,'I.ind,
Wales. Ireland, and Scotl.md, and common in a few-
places. In the Dover district it is seldom seen.

Most authors state that it is parasitic on A.
a^rorutii, ami its distribution points to this. In
Styria, lIoHer found it breeding in the nests of
/)'. ai^ronuii and J>. licljcyaiuis.

/'s. taiupes/r/s, like Jioinhus ntdcratits. is subject
to colour dimorphism, most examples being either
very light or very dark.

Judging by the large number of specimens I
have seen in Irish collections this is the commonest
species of Psithynts in Ireland. In the lightest
Irish specimens the thorax is yellow with the ex-
ception of a few black hairs in the centre. None of
the numerous black specimens of both sexes from
Ireland that I have seen have lacked yellow, or a
trace of it, on the tail.

Hi

\v Hi

-^i« rm". lU'Miu.r.n!:!-:

6. PSITHYRUS QUADRICOLOR, I cpcl.ti. .

N\M(m>m barbutellus KhIa l, .n . n,,|ii,^ l.. Sm.tli.

(Ji Ki;\. Small; I. i-ti, i.jk, i,,,,!., rxp.insc ;,-'-?;
mill. ; -.iiiiii tiitu--' Mii.illir,

llcail black, tlic li, is mi top -.ninctiiin-. liii'uil wiili
srlldu. Thorax black, with a ynllow band in front; MMnctini,-
a f<u liaiiN on tlu' back .1 tlic tliciax arc linvxl with \ . ih.w.
Abdomen black, w itli more or less yellow on the Ist segment,
and uitli the 3rd and 4th segments white or \ i llnw iMi-uhitc,
and the 5th segment dark reddish-brown. The ba-r and
middle of the 3rd ,scL;iiu-nt arc ^^'ciu'rally ini.rc or ic-,^
blackened.

1 lie tip of the abdomen is more incurved than in any
other species, so that tlu' abdomen, viewed from idi..\c, i^
shorter and more rounded. 6tii dorsal se-mcnt -.lis^htiv
aiul lonL,'itiidinally raised in the middle towards llie i)a>c,
and sli^ditly hollowed near the ape.v, where it is coarsclv-
punctured. I h<' 6th ventral segment is narrow and has its
apex produced into a sharp hook-shaped point : the ridges on
the sides of this segment are small and inconspicuous and do
not nearly reacJi to the apex.

.Mali:.— I.eiiLjth 13-15 mm., exj),!! m: 27-30 mm.

Easily known fnjiii any other male liumble-bce by
the fact that the wiiite (or yellow) tail changes at the tip.
yciicrall>- tlir(jui;Ii more or less black, to reddish.

Head bl.ick, with ;4cncrally some yellow iiairs on to]).
Thorax black, with a yellow band at the front and some-
times ;i i^:w yellow h.iirs or ,1 faint yellow band behind.
Abdomen black, with -eneraily a faint yellow band on
the 1st sef^rment, and with the 3rd se_L;meiit fexcciit some-
times at the base), tlie whole of the 4tli seL;mciit, ami
often the sides, sometimes the entire area of the 5th
sc,L;mcnt white, sometimes yellow ; remainder of the 5th
se-ment black, fjtii segment reddish or black, ;th se^r.
mciit redilish.

Mil PSlTfl ) 'Rl S ()( ADRIL OLOR

2 1C)

Tlic 31(1 iUhl ^!h oiiits .,f tlic antenna' arc- almost
c(|ual ; tin- 4tli !■< aliiait tuo-tliirds a~. \u\v^ a^ ihc 51I1,
I-civ^lh of na^tlhiin 5 mm.

Armature ili>tinct.

I'arasitic on li, pidforinii. ami ako, acconliiii; to
soiiu; .uilhors, on />'. joiicl/iis. It is wiil.lv distri-
lnit«;d, Init docs not appear to !)•■ ( Dnitnon in man)
places. At Ripple it is rare. It appears early, the
females in April and the males in Jun«; and Julv ;
th(.' latter ar(- fond of the llowers of the raspberry.

In Ireland it has l>een taken by Mr. I- nke at
Borris, Co. Carlovv.

On th<; Continent, in addition to the si.\ species of
Psithynts found in liritain, there is a spexies closely
related to Rs. (/nadriio/or named ^i^/o/iosus. This
species is parasitic on />'. sorociisis, and it is possible
that it may be found in Britain when the haunts of
J>. sorot-iisis are better known. In si/e and structure
/'s.,;'/()/'c?.'.7/5-cIo.sely resembles I's. <]iiadriiolo)\ but the
colouring of the coat is like that of /',v. niprs/ns.

IX

0\ MAKING A COLLFXTION

i! I

I

I

liii

'i>

li

ii

NoTiiiNc; L;ives greater help and pleasure to the
student of any group of insects, whether butterflies,
beetles, or bees, than to make a collection of speci-
mens of the different species. To preserve the form
and colour of such insects it is only necessary to dry
them and to keep them as much as possible in dark-
ness. The British humble-bees make a very pretty
little collection. It is not needful to buy an e.xpen-
sive cabinet to hold them. A 14" x 10" store bo.x,
sold by dealers in entomological apparatus for about
four shillings, is quite large enough to take about a
dozen specimens of each species. If room is wanted
for more— and it is a great advantage to have a
good series of each sex— another box may be added.
Also it is not necessary to set the specimens, that
is, to spread out the wings and legs on a setting
board, leaving them there until they dry ; though it
certainly improves the appearance of the collection,
and conveys a better idea of the characters of each
species.

llumi)le-bees are (-asily caught in an ordinary

'i-.i'^-:'!

ON MAKING A COLLI- CTION

butterfly net, though males drowsing on flowers may

'

be picked

the fir

e picked up in tne ringers.
The best way to kill the bees is to place them in
a wide-mouthed bottle, in the bottom of which a
mixture of cyanide of potassium and plaster of Paris
has been sjjread to a depth of an inch or two. Any
chemist will make up this kind of killing-bottle.
Care is needed to prevent moisture from getting
into the hairs of the specimens lying in the killing-
bottle, for this soon spreads over the coat and quite
spoils the appearance of the specimen. The moisture
is usually caused by the bees regurgitating the
nectar they have collected, and is quickly communi-
cated to all the specimens through their rolling
about ir the bottle. The best preventative is
crushed i ,.,ue paper put into the bottle before going
out collecting ; this vill absorb the moisture and
will keep the specimens from moving about. The
bottle should not be e.xposed to sunshine, for this
heats it and in cooling moisture condenses on the
inner surface of the glass. Of course the fewer
specimens there are in the bottle the less likely they
are to damage one another.

A properly prepared cyanide bottle, if it is kept
well corked, lasts for a year or two, and renders anv
bee placed in it motionless and insensible in less
than half a minute. If the specimen is to be srx. it
should at this stage have its wings pulled so that
they rest in a horizontal, not vertical, position. It
should then be left in the; bottle for an hour or
two ; if less it may revive, and if longer it will stiffen

V

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222

THE HUMBLE-BKR

and become hard to set. Some collectors who set
their specimens, after rendering them insensible with
cyanide, kill them with the fumes from burning
sulphur, as this does not stiffen the muscles.

The specimens are pinned through the centre of
the thorax. Stout entomological pins about i jj in.
long are best for humble-bees. Only one size of
pin should be used for all specimens, great and
small, and only about a quarter of the length of the
pin should project above the thorax.

The value and interest of the collection are much
enhanced by attaching to each specimen a label
showing the locality and date of capture. This
label should consist of a small square of stout paper
run on to the bottom of the pin.

In a freshly-caught male specimen the armature
is easily extracted with the point of a pin or needle,
and may be either left protruding, or detached and
mounted on a card by means of a little liquid glue,
the card being afterwards run on to the pin that
carries the specimen. Both methods, however,
disfigure the specimen unless great care is taken,
and seeing that an expert can generally name any
specimen without examining the armature, its extrac-
tion is not advised except as an aid to the beginner.

In setting specimens the queens should be left
on the setting boards for a month, but the males an?
usually dry and rigid in ten ilays.

The box or cabinet in which the specimens are
to be preserved should be insect [iroof, and it should
contain a small piece of naphthaline.

ON MAKING A COLLECTION

2 2 1

It requires much time and patience to obtain a
series of [)erfect, unfaded specimens of some of the
less common species, especially of the cjueens, by
catching them in the fields, but if a nest can be
found they can easily be bred. The bees must be
allowed to remain in the nest for three or four days
after they have acquired their full colour or the
colour will fade when they are drying. The (jueons
of some species, such as />'. /ic //era mis and J>.
iiiiiscoritm, ily from the nest before their full bright-
ness has been accjuired, and in order to breed satis-
factory specimens of them it is necessary to keep them
confmed to the nest by means of a queen 'nterceptor,
or to bring the nest indoors shortly before it breaks
up, and keep it in a box covered with wire-cloth.
The colours of perfectly mature specimens are
permanent, provided they are not exposed for long
to strong light, the only possible exceptions that I
know of being the delicate shades ot lemon and
irreenish-vellow in B. iiiitsioniiu and disfiiioitciiiiiis,
which I have not yet succeeded in preserving in
their full freshness for more than a few months.

There is no better place for collecting humble-
bees than a large old-fashioned garden. Of th(;
scores of cultivated Howijrs that they delight in,
one cannot do more than mention a few : in the
tlower garden, nasturtium, swett-pea, snapdragon,
laventler, bergamot. Clarkia and Fraxinclla ; in the
kitchen garden, .sage, broad-beans, scarlt-t-runners,
globe artichoke (I havt; seen as many as fourteen
humble-bees on one tlower-head ot this [)lant), also

T

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I «

224

THK HUMBLE- BEE

raspberry and fruit blossom of all kinds ; and amonn^
flowering shrubs and trees, red ribes, l:sial/onia,
Coloncastcr, and horse chestnut. In August, when
their numbers are greatest and wild flowers begin
i'^ fade, they flock to the fields of red clover, and the
lazy males congregate on the thistle heads.

li

'i ;

w

■ mi
111!

X

AXIXDOTHS AND XOTi:s

1\ the (bllowintr pacr^s an collected some extracts
from my notes of various experiences with himible-
be(.'s.

"NUMBER 30."

The artificial nests, under Sladen wooden covers,
put out to attract queens in 1910, were i)laced in all
kinils of positions, and one of them, Xo. ;,o. was
situated on our lawn close to where we usually sit
out and take afternoon tea.

On June 1 1, a /apidariiis (\m-i:n was noticed ^^oIva^
in and out of the nest by my wif(^ who was sitting:
only two feet from the entrance. The cjueen was
seen to Hy out of the nest at 3.30. She return<-d at
4.0, and flew out a,<rain at 5.5: she returned aj^ain
at 5.;, [, and left ao;ain at O.o : she returned at 6.20
laden with honey, but with no pollen, and was seen
to -() off a(,rain ;it O.45. Almost every d.iv after
thi-, we used to see this (jueen passini,^ in and out of
her domicile when we were havini; tea, and she
showed no alarm at our presence or at the sudden
appearanc(.' of table and chairs or even at the ed-cs

111

;!!

226

TH1-: HUMHLK-HHH

If i

If* ■■

h !

nt I

of the t.il)l(;-cloth waviiifj^ in the wind. l<"rcqiK'ntly
she was seen entering,' her hole heavily laden with
pollen. On June 15 the tea-party was hirs^er than
usual, and when th(; (jueen arrived on the sci;ne she
circled about for a few seconds regarding the com-
l)any, then she went straight into her hole. At dusk,
when she could not see the way in, I sometimes saw
her raise herself above the grass and take her bear-
ings from the white woocKmi cover ; with this in
sight she Hew to the entrance and let herself drop
into it.

On June 16, at 11.15 -^-^i-. ^h^ queen being out, I
lilted the cover and examined the nest. Like most
of my other queens this one had ignored a little
cavity I had made in the centre of the nest material,
and had formed her nest on the top of the material.
It consisted of fine material, neatly woven together,
with the entrance at the side. 'I"he honey-pot, onlv
as yet half its full size, was situatei.1 as usual in the
entrance, and I could see the honey glistening in it.
I separated the little nest from the rest of the nest
material, which had become damp, and placed it on
some fresh dry material, underneath which I had laid
a disc of tin. I also removed all the slugs and
centipedes I could find in the cavity, and I cleared
the tunnel with a stick, killing two slugs in doing so.
.Scarcely was this finished when the queen returnc^d,
and although I got my garden boy to wave his arms
to frighten her off, and both he and I then stooped
down over the nest, she took no notice of us, but.
seeing her hole, steered straight for it and went in.

1 t I

xumhi:r 30

22-

It

was c

man.

lear she no longer fearetl the presence of

On jumt 19, at 10.30 a.m., I placed one of the
tin mou.se-e.\clu(lers. pr«;viouslyclescril)(;d (page 119),
containing a slot only just large enough for her to
jjass through, over the mouth of the tunnel. At
3 I'.M. she was seen to enter the slot without the
least hesitation.

June J I, 5 P.M. Another tea-party. Arriving on
the scene she disregarded us, and tlew between the
legs of a chair into her hole.

On the other hand a passing lapidariiis queen
took notice of an old hag lying in the grass in the
paddock near by, and tlew backwards and forwards
over it as if she was much annoyed with it. Then
she passed on. She may have been a queen from
one of my other lapidarius nests, si.\ of which were
situated within thirty yards.

June 26. The queen was seen Hying to her hole
with her tail inclining to the left side, as if she had
met with an accident. I inspected her and found
that the tip of her right front wing was gone, and
that in consequence she had to turn her tail to the
left in order to steer straight when llying with a
heavy load.

I again cleared out the nest cavity. It contained
a number of young millipedes, and about twenty k-; rv
small white earwigs.

June 27. The weather having been cold and
stormy in the evening. I thought it advisable to see
if 1 could give the queen some food, as I knew she

I J

i ;

'Mil

11? 1^'

J2S

Tiir: I III Ml} Li:- HI- 1-

couKI not have giithcrcd eiiouLjh iIiiriiiL;^ tlu; day to
ket-p hc-r aiiimatcil llirouj^h tliu ni}j;lit. On liiiiiig
otf the cover at 7.5 p.m. I found her animated, and
rath(;r excited at beinj; disturheil, huz/inj; a i;ood
deal, and goini,' in and out of her nest. By pressing
hack the material over the entrance? to the nest I
caui,du slight of the hontjy-pot whicli was almost
empty. I then, with a fountain-pen filhir, injected
some syrup which had been prepared for feedin;^
liontty-bees, into the honey-|)<)t. As I was doing
this I could feel the (pietMi angrily biting the tij* of
the filler. Directly I withdrew the filler I saw her
tongue in the syruj) sucking it up, and it remaiiu;d
in this [)Osition for quite half a minute. Then the
queen retired to her brood, but occasionally I saw
her head stretch towards the honey-[)ot to take a sip.
She seemed greatly gratified at finding her pot full,
anil sipping from it seemed to be a pleasure which
she likeil to repeat.

June 28. Another stormy day. I filled the
honey-pot at 7.50 p.m. The cjueen was less alarmed
than on the previous evening, and drank the syrup
eawrlv, taking it from the filler.

June 29. At 7.20 r.M. I went to feed the (jueeii.
On lifting the cover I was alarmed to see three or
four ants [I-itsiiis /.'/;'£'/') crawling on the nesl
material. Investigation showed that others were
running up antl down the tunnel and in and out of
its mouth, and even over the honey-[)ot into the
.est. Having had the young brood in two of m\'
nests, one of them but three yards distant from this,

:m-.^

w^i^t'i

r\\-\t CJ "-i' - i -' -ITT", .V- ;^-«--

w ..

NUMHI-R .■}()

229

destroyed l>y L. niocr only a few days before, I saw-
that the ants must be ^oi rid of at once if this nest
was to be sav(;d. Accordin-,dy 1 killed eight ants
crawlinj,' on the n<;st material, then caiiL,dit the queen
in a j^dass jar, anil lifietj out the nest. There was
only on(; ant in it, but I killed nine more in the
cavity and tunnel and around tlu; mouth of the
latter. Then with my trowel I shaved off the surface
of the f,'round— it was <,rrassy— over an area extend-
ing to about a foot around the mouth of the tunnel

I'l...

and cover, and with my pocket-knife made a little
trench about an inch wide and an inch deep sur-
rounding these, and nowhere ai)proaching nearer to
them than three inches. Into this trench I poun^d
a mixture of turpentine and paraffin oil, the scent of
which is distasteful to ants.

Alter having made sure no ants r(;main(Hl inside
the area enclosed by the trench, I put back the nest,
pl.icing it, without any supertliious nest material, (jn
a disc of sacking which cover(;d the disc of tin.
Then I let the queen run in. .She was verv pleased
to grt back to her brood (the first larva- had spun
their cocoons), and to find he-r honey-pot again full.
June 30. 7 A.M. No ants in the nest or within

11^ ^ ■ i

-\;o riii' iii'MMi.i:-i5i:i-: x

the area smromuU'd hy my lillli; trciuh. Three
ilcail carth-woriiis lay in the trench. TIk; tnrpentiiu;
(nlour had passvd otV hut tliat of tile parattin
reinaiiiecL

S I. \i. When I canu- to till the honey-pot I
toniul that tin- luini) of lomh hail rolled almost off
the sackini,', so I hollowed the l.itter in th(,' middle
tt> retain it. The ({neen seemeil to consiiler tin;
hrood to be insiiltkiently covered and ran ai)oiit,
pullini; and (.it'lachin<,' hits of nest material with her
j.iws and cardino them with her Icl^s. She even
tried tt) hile littU; pieces off the vxl^tiH of the
sackiiiM. While rhus occupied she frecjuently re-
turned to the hrood. and always when she reached
it emitted little buzzes of pleasure.

July 2. The (puHMi has continueil to tly with
her tail inclining to the left, but to-day les.s markedly
than at hrst because both her wins;s havt; now
become much lacerated. Her llioht has become
much les.s swift ami strong than formerly. To-day
she could tly only slowly and evidently realised her
growing l(;ebleness, for she worked a good deal in
the garden. She travelled to the sag« . S. of)'uiiui/is,
knowing well where the two clumps (jf it in different
parts of the garden wen^ situated, and her thora.x
was (lustetl with i)ollen from an f)ran<:e lilv that
stood near her nest. Sh(! also visit('d the birds-foot
trefoil on the lawn. Hut she alighted too on grasses
and on the tlowers of a sow-thistle, from which, of
course, she could obtain nothing. How easily she
would now have fallen a prey to a bird had it

M i'-\

Xr.MBI-.R ;{0

iari-<l to nursiii' 1;

t.T

Sh

,111'

lak

<: u I . almost past wor

mnr pity on her I provi.!. .1 Ik r witli a

worker tliat «•

.f

•mcri^'cd ycstcnl ay m one ol my n
advanced hipiJariit^ n<sts. Alioiit noon I saw her
enter Iicr nest, l)iit u\\\\ a miniiH! Iati;r slic cain<- out
aijain, and I saw that her h()ney-|)Ot Was already
hill. Certainly let-d i- had not tnadt; this (|iieen lazy.
This, hf)W(;ver, was the last day on which 1 saw
her lly.

July .}. In tht; cvcninj.,' I poured some mort;
parattni oil ii-o the trench, th(,- snit-Il of the previous
application havini^r almost disappeared. \o ants
hat! jrot into the nest.

July 5. 'I'he honey-pot having,' proved leaky,
I substituted an artitkial one made ot beeswax.
'l"he first worker emerged to-day.

I continued feedinj,' the colony each evenini;
until th(; weather improved towards the 1 ud ot"
July, but it did not ijrow very rapidly, and -he
workers got lazy. In August, however, it picked
up well and became qiiif; strong. About the
middle of September the weathe-r grew cool ami
the colony lapsed occasional!)' into torpor. As
time went on the periods of torpor became more
frequent and lasted longer. Du;ing these periods
the bees were able to support life for d.iys together
without food. And so the colony lingrred on until
October 16, the queen remairn'ng alive; u ith I a\-
workers until the end.

J

i|

I III. III'MIJM. lill'

A FOSTER MOTHER.

t \

I i

Sciii liiii!4 i|in<ns laiimlit aiul |itii into coin-
iiit'iiciiiu; lu^sls ol tlicir dwii s|)((ics lichavcd \cr\
v.iriaMy. A /<?/•/./(?/ ///\ or tnir slits (|U(tii cuii^ht
iMtly ill llic si'asoii m'lirraliy look little or no
iiotiic ot the hrooil, f\cii il tin- nest ((nitaimd
worki-rs ami was (incciilcss, hiii iiio|)«'(l in the
rorncr, or ifslic was pcrniittiHl to tly she (lisapiK'arcd.
lUit (Ulceus caiiL;lu Lite in the season soineliines
took to the brood at once.

< )n June 27, i()io, I ciunht a searchiiiuj /(//>/,/,/;7«*
(liieeii and put her in a box witii a (-luster of cocoons
containing; [nipa' from one ot my lupularius nests
that h.id hetMi deserted ; hut she tore them open and
would not sit on them.

On July I, ii)io. I captured a searchiiij^f /(//>/(/,^/7//.v
(jueen in the apiary and Li.ivc hc-r a lew C(jc()()ns
cont.iinini^ larv.e. She immediately adopted them
and showed threat attachment to them, sittiiij; on
them almost continuously.

On the same day, a lapidaiiits (jueen occupviiii;
one ot my domiciles was tound in a dazed condition
on top ol her nest, which had been pulled to pieces
aiul reconstructed by some small mammal, althouijh,
and this was stran<)[e, her brood which had reached
the cocoon sta<;e had not been inJLired. I brought
the jjoor (piecn imloors with her brood, but although
she drank some honey I ottered her, she appeareil
to be ill, tor she paid no alteiilion to her brood but

A losri-R-Moriii.R

iraul':(l slouK in a stiipifu'd in.imi'T .m.iinl ill''
l)(t\ with li'T .mlfnn. I- stilt .111(1 <lri)n|)iiit;. A pciiuly
(•m<T^<;il work'T th.il I liad l»rf)ir_;lii iVoin aiiDtlxr
iKst seemed |)ii//Ieil at hep str.inife I)ih,i\ iniir, ami
lollowed her aljoiil tr\ iir^ to nestle under her.

Jill)- 2. S \,\I. As the si( k (|liei'Il seemed no
Wetter and still shoued no inclination to tend her
lirood. I put her ami her Ijrood into the hox
coiu.iinin|L( the queen caught on July i and her
hrood, and watched the result. The- cauj^ht (lueeii
paid as much att<:ntion to the new brood as to her
own, sittini:,' now on the one lump and then on the
oth(-r. .Shit was at lirsl in( lin<.-d to le.ir and also
attack the sick iiue-en. l)is. o\(;rinL;, howev<-r, that
the latter took no notice lA her, hut only wandered
aimlessly ahont the box, she lefi her alone. Never-
theless, slie uttered a short imiiatient buz/ e\ery
time she met the sick ijueen : it remindetl me of
the cry often made by ([ueens when thev hnd their
brood unexpectedly, but it was a jealous bu//: rather
th.ui one of pleasure. It was interestin;^^ to see how
the care of the brootl had stimulated her intelligence
to its hiL^iiest pitch of .iclivity. .She was keen, alert,
and hill of life.

At times slu- emleavoured to leave the box, but
one could see by hi-r behaviour that these attempts
were not ordinary (tttorts to escape but were .iccom-
panietl by an ox'erwhelmiiv^ consciou^,ness of the
presence ol htjr brood, showiu'.^'^ that her intention
was proliabl)' to L;.ither fooi-l lor it. ID proxa;
this, 1 carrieil the box containinL; the nest into the

-j4

TIfK HUMHLE-HKE

f.'r

III''

^f*

I

Jih:

drawinjr-room aiul, after closing the vviiulows, opened
It. She soon took wing, and after circh'ng round
th(t spot Hew to the flowers on a geraniun plant in
the window, and afterwards to an orange lily in a
vase. To the latter she paid particular attention,
hovering from JIorh to tloret, dusting herself with
the pollen, and, with her tongue extended, rubbing
her dangling legs together. A (pieen humble-
be«: is too heavy to dart about like a honey-bee,
and it was v.tv pretty to watch her manceuv-
ring skilfully and gracefully among the blossoms,
every turn executed with intelligence, delibera-
tion, and pois.;, accompanied by the loud musical
hum.'

She did not beat herself against the window-
p.mes like a humbU;-bee usually does that Hies in
by accident through an open window; this was
l>ecause she was not frightened and had her interests
111 the room. Soon she began to search for her
nest ; I placed it near her and she ran in. Probably
it would be easy to train a humble-bee to rear her
young in a room or conservatory,- while allowing
her liberty of llight inside.

lo A.M. The foster-mother was seen feeding
the larva- with liquid food from her mouth. I-he
sick (lu.rn had become weaker and crawled slowly
about m the lobby apparently oblivious of everything,
h.T only dcsirtf In-ing lo creep to die light.' Her

,, ' '■''"■■"'■■•■''■' ;'"^'l "-■ """ i^ lil-Jyl..^an, .nM,|,|cU- ,„.,.t,,y,,|

''";■'" '""■' '"■ ''■'- ''■■""I '•■ »nll,i!cllM- l!,;i,t ,,|,|„ |,„,„|,|, 1,,,..

■ -"■'"" y-"^ '-:■' •!'■■ '^-''-nn. „l ,. ,.,,,,„|,„„ „,,; „! A. ,>„,,.„.„ „,„ „ ,„ „,^.

A FOSTER-MOTH HR 235

companioi occasionally approached her and bii/zcd,
but was afraid to tackle her.

S P.M. The foster- motlier has been sitting
devotedly on the brotxl and has ackled a wax rim
to the bees- wax cell that I have provided tor feeding.
The other queen died during the day.

I placed the nest out of doors under one of my
wooden covers, giving it six recently-hatched, good-
si/ed young workers from another nest.

July 3. At 7.30 A.M. the foster-mother was out.
I looked into thi; nest again at S.o. lo.o and 10.30
A.M., but did not see her. No doubt she tiew out
early in the morning and never returned. I had
half expected this result, for it had happent;d under
similar circumstances in previous years. The
reason seems to be that in nature the cpieen always
learns the position of the nest before she commences
to sit on the brood, and when the sitting stage is
reached the power to learn a new location is usually
lost. l>ut not alwa\s, for I once knew a hrirs/ris
queen to return. Although, no doubt, the present
lapidixriii^ (pieen carefully marked the jjosition
of her honu; when she left it, the meinory of it
was soon ettaced in the absorbing work of gathering
food for th(; brood, and so she got lost.

I 1.30. Ha[)p('ning to be walking in tin: apiary I
saw, sf-arching about in the same place where I had
caught the foster-mother on July i, a lapidariits
([ueen, with [jollen on her legs. As an ordinary
searching (jueen is never lailen with pollen 1 w, itched
her for a lew minutes, and, conclutling from her

m

■ ' v.

ill

-^36

TIIH HUMnLIMiHi:

l)'havi.)iir that she Iiad 110 nest there. I cau_(rht her
aii.l hroii-ht her to my motherless nest, a distance of
al.om .;oo yards. Tiiinkinor she mi-ht possibly be
tlie lost (jueen. I put her, muler my net. to the
moiilh of the hole. She immediately reco-ni.seil it,
and alter making- several attempts, siica.-eiled in
k^'ttin- lliroutrh the mouse-e.\cliid(;r I had placed
over it and disappeared insiile. Two minutes later
1 htted the cover and (oimd that she was sittintr on
the brood, and had unburdened herself of the pollen.
I here was no (lut-stion of her id(Mitity. and in ord(;r
to avoid K)sin- her again 1 cau-ht her in a glass jar.
brought her indoors and clipped h<T wings, after-
wards returning h^M" f- the nest. Fearing she
might stray on foot. I substituted a .pieen-intt^rceptor
for the moust:-e.\ciuder.

Jill) .}. Tiie ipieen spent much of her timt; this
morning trying to g.n through ih<- interceptor. 1
visited the nest six times, .md -very time she was
there. .\t 2.45 p.,,,.. therefore. 1 reni<.\ed the
infrceptor and wat. lied her. .\|[,r , l-aning herself
■uul making two attempts i,, tly she ran back ,l.^vn
ih.- passag,: .juite contc'Ul. Snbse.|uent!y th.' hole
was uatche<l f,,,- tiiree-qnarters .,f an hour, during
whi. h the <jue.11 was s<-en to come out six tim.■s^
but ^lie iiev^r wciii farther than a foot from th<-
li"l<-. nd always with or.'at pleasure found her wav
I'ack. Thr interc.-pior was pul back over tin- hole
.11 iiiL'ht.

July 5
•el out

Tlu

leltUl.

ijiiccii was no more seen trNin-r to

li'-r ha\-e

Ilia-

lu»(r[\ \(sterda\-

P!5^...;;¥H'^;

^1

A FOSTKR-MOTHFR

- j7

seemed to iuive made her content to remain
inside.

I'roni this date th(t colony iirf)S[)ered (;xceedinj^l\-,
and in the middle of AiiL,'iist, when its population
was at the hij^hest, it iinist hav(; contained over 2or>
workers. I attribute this ^^ood result lo the intro-
duction of a vigorous ([ueen into a nest cont.uniii;^
plenty of well-developed worker hrood and inter-
fering with it as little as [)Ossible. Xo doubt, too,
the earthen domicile under the wooden cover (piite
suits the; re(|i:ir<;ments of the humble-bees.

AN OBSERVATION NEST IN MY STUDY.

On July 4. 1910, one of my lapidayiiis (|ni ens
tiiat had started nesting,; in one of n\\ artificial
domiciles was found dead insith; a nidusi'-excludcr I
had placed over llie mouth of the hole. .She left
a brood ot pu[ia-, larva', and eL,^L;s, and five punv
workers. .All thcs(? I ;_;a\e to a searLhin^; /(7^/(/(/;7//x
([ueeii that had been cauL;ht the previous (\,\\ , antl
had since been kept in continemem.

1 tirsi intrnduced the cpieen id the l.irood. While
she wa-^ \ei an inch awa\' Irom it .^hie ^udileuK'
• iliandoned lier urdinary dull antl carele>-s m, inner
,uid. siaiuiiiiL' .It attention, stretched out her antenn.e.
No ddubi she h.ul sniejt t!.e bnunl and \\,is anxious
to L;ei to it, but restr.uned hersell lur te.ir of eneoun-
terini; a rival. 1 hen she cautiousK advaiK (•(', and
when, hall a niinuu' Liter, sh.- re.u heJ, the bri>()d sh.e
showed L:re,it --atist.irtion ami phMMiie, ,uul inuiieih-
■ itelv slr<;tchecl hersell over it.

I I

-^38

THF ill'MHLH-p,!:!.;

li It" i

\y

m

w

\m

After tins I dropped the workers, which had
become Iethart,Mc, into the box: .,n.- of them M\
close- to the queen, who hTt.-d lu-r 1.- as a
"arnin.o; i„ it. but when, a f.-w minutes huer. the
workers recovered animation, mutual friendship w is
estahhshed.

The w.ath.T I.ein,*,^ unfavourable and the workers
few and unders,/,.!, I chd not allow the b,-cs their
I'lHTty, but kepi them cajred and supplied them
nK.rnm,<,r and (.v-nin,^r with honey and pollen, and
the) pro.,p(red well.

Ji'ly 7. The <iueen laid a numb.-r of em^s durin.-
the niL;ht. "^

J lily 10. She laid some more e<rcs
Ji'ly 14- I'ossessino; another ca^t^d nest of /,,//-
'/'^/v.vv, 1 exehan^^ed ,|u,.,mis. Thev took to one
anothers brood and wen-n^ceived amieabiv bv the
workers, but at first seemed appn^hensive ' that
■soincthinL,^ was not .luite riolu.

Ji'ly 17. 1 rein^,tated each queen iu h.-r own
"'■-l; this exchange u,,s ,dso ettected uithout
nu:ul(,-m.

Ji'iy 10. The box containin.^- the n«'st, whieh
was situated or, ...abi,- in my siudv, had been acei-
^l.-ni illy left open, and a uorker thai had -vldentlv
••seaped trom ,t was se. n l., iK ,„ ihnui.J, the o,,en
un.dow, laden uiih poli,.„. .She tl.-w to ih,- la-st

^ '■'''•• ^^''i^^l> ^^as about thr,.,- yareb- trom the window
a'ul ali^hlnu,. ran mio ih.- n.-si. I, wa. a pi.tulv
•■xecuied t<Ml, and ,1. the tim,- ikh! uou , om,- t,, |,'t
tl^" col..n> have ii. liberty. >he work,-r. havin-

A NHST IN MV STUDY 239

increased to twcUi:, aiul tht- wcatlur haviiie sonu*-
what imi)ri>\cd, I dcciilcd to l(;avf tht; in-st wlirrc it
stood on its table in tint stiitly, and to let the workers
lly in and out throuj^di the open window.

Although this window occupied but one-fourth
ot the windowed area ot the room, and w.is opened
only at the top to an extent ot al)out one-third of its
liei^dit, the work(;rs seldom tlcw at^ainst the ylass.
I'he winiluw was closed in the evening; wh(Mi all the
bees had returned, about --V) i.m., but earlier on
coKl clays, ,ind later on \rry warm on»-s. I'hc nest,
which was proxided with an eartli-tlonred Mslibule,
w.is shut up at the same time Xext moriiin"
about S.o, if the weather seemed promisiii-, ihi-
nest Aud window Were openi-d, but if then^ was a
hii^h wind the bees were kept contined to their
quarters, and when necessary wen- in]. The colonx-
llourishtnl W(dl, i)arrins4 •"> ace idcnt to be m.'ntioned
latiT. and in Auj;ust, wln-n the weatli.-r ^rew warnu-r,
it became (Muirely self-siqjportiiiij, and reared a
number ot males and (jueens. Xo doubt it would
have- done still better if the opcniiiL; in the win, low-
had been nearer liie -round it was S teet ,ibo\-c
it, tor in a gale of wind it was only bv l■.\(•^ci^,inL(
oreat skill that tlu; workers were able to steer in.
and man\- must have uot b.itlered .i]](.\ !o-,t. 1 \\,is
surprising how well they tound their way in the
subdued lij^ht of the room. .Sitting at m\- desk I
w,is almost in their line i^\ lliu^ju, l,,,t ihry never
molested me.

( )| course it w.is ver_\- easy and ple.iN.mt to make

I
I

i

I

t" !

'!'|

iiiiil

m

m

240

THK III'MHLK-HHF-

observations on tliis nest, and I freciuently watchc'd
the workers dispose of their loads.

On July 20, for instance, I saw a worker cross
the room with a full loail of pollen. After she hail
entered the nest I lifted off the cover and saw that
the (|ueen took -reat notice of her. stretchin<,f across
to her and stroking; the pollen with her antenna-.
Other workttrs also showed ple-asure .uid interest in
the nr.w arrival, or. as I think more likely, her
pollen, and as she went about searching.; for a cell
she producetl (juite a stir amon.s^st her immediate
companions. .She buried her head into a pollen cell,
then, tinding it satisfactory, stei)ped forward and
rubbetl the tw.. pellets off her legs into it. .Another
worker .it oiice ilived into the cell and spreatl the
pollen in it.

Al 1.45 i'.\!., the weather having; become rainy
and windy, a worker was seen busily workin^^ back-
wards and forwards iietw.'en the nest and a honev-
bees' c(jmb of honey that was lyin.L; on a lower shelf
of th(; same table, not a bad occupation for a wet
afternoon ! .\t 4.50 i.m. she was still busy at this,
and timin- her, I fouiul that she took i inin. 25
.ecs. to find the .(.nib -this was probably because
the room was rather dark and 4 mins. 51. s.v. to
till hcrs.'lf, thin -.he llew slraiwlu to the uesi. ilc,-c
she rcni.n'ned :[ niuis. On the n.'xt journev •' min,
was spent in l..,,kin- f.,r the comb, and 4 mins. in
tilhn- h.Tseir. Tiiri;.- nuiuitcs l,it,T she appeared
a-ain , this tini.- ..hr il.w straiojit to the comb and
took .][ nnnutrs to nil herself

A \i:.ST IX MV STCDV
July 2 1. A sail chain

241

it^f caim; over tin- colony
to-tlay. I noticed soni.- of the uork.rs hnttin- on.:
another this mornin<(. '{'his eveninL( these .juarrel-
sonie spirits had miilti|.lie.l and had thrown the
orderly and contented colony into confusion and
anarchy. They rushed madly ov(;r the comh,
.ittackuig and |)ushini,r one anotht-r with !.,M-eat
V(-henience, and hall" their comrades were on the
ll"or idle and .Irowsy. In tJKt hope of restoring
()rd(!r I removed tivtr of the worst, hut still tli<: re-
mainin^r ones could not agree. I.or.king at the
qiK-en I noticed that she was taking no interest in
anything around her i)ut had fallen into a kind of
stupor. When I trieil to arouse her she trembled,
and she would not t.ike fooil. I'.vid.'iuly she was
.uhng. A worker seized one of her hind Ics^s in her
jaws and began pulling it, another tugged at one of
her antenna-, and a third caught hold of her tongue
and trieil to drag her along by it. .She did not
seem to mind this rough tn-atmeiit. but slowly
cleaned her antenna with her foreleg when the
worker let it go. rrob.ably she was only half con-
scious. I':vid(.-ntiy the object of the workers in
s<M/ing her was not to aiiack h.-r l,ut to r.niov.-
hrr: they .seemed to haw: divided that she was
useless and going to tlie.

I he sickness of th(; (jueen nas, in fad. the c aiise
ot the ([uarrelling. In every nest uinler my ,b-
servation that has hat! the misfortune to l,,sr us
quren, including one o\ /ii/iti/AZ/ns .uid aunriuT of
iii!iM\>r/i,u. the workrrs (luairdhd in the ^a!i> uaw

y

21-:^

Ip:

i|i>i!

Hll.

if J

242

TIN' lll'.Mi'.Li:-|{HP:

cc.inmciicin,^; to ilo so within an hour or two after
llii- ([iicen was removed or he^Mii to sicken. Iliey
li,L;hi to become mothers. ( )ii July i, kjii, 1 re-
nioveil the ([iieen from a stron;^r /ii/>/</,rr///.^ colonv.
Two clays later 1 killed and dissect.'d several of the
most pu-nacious of the workers ; they all contained
ei;gs. This colony settled down somewhat alter a
ilay or two, several workers havin- .L;ained ihe
coveted position, hut desultory (luarrellint,' con-
tuiued, and that it was sometimes carried to the
de.uli was shown by the presiMice of fourleiMi dead
work(M-s (out of a total of about sixty) in the nest
on July 15.

To return to the nest in my study. On July 22
at o.;iO .\.M. the ()ueen was seen lyin- dead in the
vestibule, no doubt dra^t^^ed there by the workers.
L.iter in the morniiii,^ 1 e.\ann"ned all my ounloor
lapida lilts nests, and tound that one that was
reigned over by a s.itellite, the ori-inal <iueen hav-
inj,^ dieil, was the least prosperous, this having
been the nest that I hatl assist.-d ItMst durinL,^ the
prevailinL^ bad weather. 1 therefore l^rought this
nest indoors and united it to the iiueenless one,
'Ihe (|ue(;n llew out of the < avity, but 1 t^ently beat
her down with a piece of card into the nr.iss .uul
popped ajar o.er lier : 1 bruu-lu In.-r indoors and
let her i!y to \.\v window, where "

Clipped licr

wm^s wuhoui ev.uM-^ iier, and then put li.-r into
ti"' ' -t ^iif u.i-. pleaded to
lar 'r and

Unci

iierself in s(

pro^prroiis a colony, ,nid alter runninj;
o\e,- ih.; bmud ,iiid huLj-in,.^ It she went to ,1 lion.'v-

^V^>C.

i:5?^;^S

A XI'ST 1\ MV STUDY 243

pot ;iiui took a lon-^r draught. All tht; workers that
approaciiml her S((.'nuxl int('rL-stt:cl in her, w.iviii!^^
ihiir aiiKMina- in her ilirection or toui hing her, hut
mnu- atu^inpted to attack h(!r. and they soon seemed
to regard her prfsence as a matter of course ; they
also ceas(-d to bull oik; another and peace- was re-
storeil. The workers siiowed greater attaclimeiit
to the new l)rood than to iheir own, no doubt
b«;cause it consiste-d of pupa- in a further advanced
stage. Th(; workers from the outdoor nest, four
tniy ones, were; ilropped into the nest live minutes
later ;md wi;re well received.

July 23. The returning workers swec]) in
through the window ;ind descend almost to the
lloor, then they make a "bee line" for their table,
s(-eing which they rise and in nine cases out of ten
at once alight and run into the nest.

July 31. The workers, which now number aI)oul
twenty, have been lale'K busy forming a wa\<.'n
covering over the nest. During the night 1.'.
S(]uare inches of this were constructed.

.\ugust 2. When a worker llew to the window
and found it closed il had the good sense to llv
back again to tlie nest.

When the nest u.is accitlentally jarred or
breathed upon there was i iremendou-. bu//ing,
that ot the (jueen ijciiig the; loude^^l and longe-l
continued. At the same time a number of the
W(.ikers ran out of th.- nest. When the com-
motion subsided these uorki-rs were in no hurr\-
to return to the nest, !)ut -Uood for a loii > time

li

-M4

Tiii': iiUMKLiMii:!:

III!

mi
m

1

siltMit aiul inotionlrss in tlu- placrs t.. which tht ir
(•xdt.mcnt had \vA them. waU\u^ patiduly lor any
lurthrr si-ns ,>f attack. ,\ siiniiarly-caiis.-,! coin-
nrnti.)!! in a nest of /,'. iu/fcraniis, -.vhich apin-ars
K. I«- a I.ss oxcital.Ii: spcci(,-s than hpuhrius, suh-
■siilcd much D^'irc ([uickly.

Aujrust r. The workers h(,Mly invcsti-af any-
thin<,r stran-c-, anil if I hold a stii k lo the c.,mb will
crawl up it .(lid on to my Im-crs and hand. They
much pr.h.-r my hand to the stick or to any artiM.'s
I may pr.rsrnt to tii,;m. and it is hard to coax tli.-m
to l<MVc- it. .So tar I h.avc not L.-t-n stun,:,', l.iit they
l"-havL- ,.s if au.uv tli.y are crawlin<,r upon a livin^r
l^.'in<r, K-arin.i; to v.Miture lar. and k.-cpin.i; on thr
look-out lor a sudd.-n attack. I „tlered poll,,, to a
uork.-r standin-; on luy t"in<,r.T this .ncnin^r, and she-
atf it t^'rccilijy.

.\n,(. ;,. In the c-vcnini- I s.uv a worker attack
a l.ir^e op.-,, .--.cell containing thre.: ej^r-s. I
watcheil it seize an e-t; in ,ts monili .ind eat it
<iuickly, evidendy enjoyinj; it. It then ate another.
Another work.T ate th.: thii'd. 'riu: ,,uten was
t;ngat,a'(l elsewhere.

An-. 4, evenin- The e--,-cell was larger and
sealed, but a work.'r so,,,, came and ,naile a hole
in it. I enlart,'ed the hol<- an<l found four ,--s in
tile bottom of the cell. A Worker was on th.'point
of liftinu; out on.: .,f these when the .picn walked
U]) and .seal.-.l u|) the cell.

All.-. 5. .\o trace of yester.lay's e-g-cell w.is
seen this mornin- at '.},o.

A NKST IN MV STl'DV

245

At ;, I'. \i. tli<: (]iic(Mi had laid tin- foundation of

lari^c new cfll. The workers

w«Ti: already inclnicd

to interfere, sliakir.^' their \vinjj;s excitedly as they
approached it ; the fiueen. however, took no notict;
ol their opposition and only went on with the cell
at inlerv.ils.

I was nnahle to look into the lu.'sta'Min until S.

;o

1'. M, The ceil was then closed, fh
n th

<-■ <',^',i;s havMlj,' been
u\l in the interval. It w.is lar^^er than the cell of

ves

terd,

he-inuj about th(; si/e of a pe.i. 'I'he
workers w<;re very active, tryinj.{ to open it. l)Ut tlie
(pieen canit,' and pushetl tiiem aw.iy, hutting; them
s(;verely. 1 saw her chase a |)articularly a^^ressive;
one, and while she was thus eni^Mffcd another r.in to
th(; cell, and, eai,'erly opening it, began interfi

with th(; eggs, which, iiowever. being at the l)ott(

n«:

)m.

were not verv accessiltle

lu- (luet.'n, return uig.

hurrietll)- pushed this worker aside ant! sealed u\)

•11. Directlv iier Ixick

was turned two workers

began to open thf^ cell again. Losing p.itiencc; she
m a hirious butt which s(;nt it rei-ling

•Mve on<; o

f th(

r sh

e {Miga^ed as

to the ijottom of tht; ct)nii), tin; oth<
she wouKl a rival (lueen, enibr.icing it as if to sting
it. but it e.isily slipped out of her grip and ran away
much frightened and subdueil.

.\ minute later, I

looKfcl

ami

saw

th

e (Huren

working with her jaws at the cell in a great stale of
excitement and activilv. Now, instc.id of closing
the cell she h.iil it wide open, and with fi:verish
h,ist<' she seemed to be builtling it up and widening
its mouth ; at the sanK- u'me her l)odv revolv(;d round

.-£!•: i^:.«._.ffi iJi^y^ " li£^r^

MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART

(ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No, 2)

1.0

I.I

[f i^ ilia

t^ 1^ III 2.2
140 12.0

11.25 mil 1.4

1.8

1.6

^ APPLIED IN/MGE Inc

:Sr^ '^-' -Qst Mj.n street

ST^Z Roci^esler, New rcx-t- '4609 USA

'■JS! {''6) 482 - 0300 - Phor.e

^^ (^''6) 288 - ^989 - fa.

IP

L A«' •!- '-.

! 'i i
i

|p !

I:

I-

n

1

Si"/-'
1"^ -

246

TIIK HUMHLK-BKI-

the cell, so that no worker could approach. At
times her alJomen was much contracted, and it
seemed as ;; she was on the point of plunging
herself, head first, over the cell. I supposed she
was about to lay some more eggs, and so it turned
out, for her movements became frantic, and ended in
her inserting the tip of her abdomen into the cell.
She seemed in a great hurry to get the eggs laid ;
and even while she was laying them the workers
attacked the cell, but they did no harm to it. Five
minutes later she had the cell sealed over and was
guarding it strictly.

August 6, 8 A.M. Peace reigns in the nest, but
the cell has completely disappeared.' The wa.xen
canopy was much extended during the night and,
no doubt, contains the wa.\ from the cell.

4 v.y\. Another large cell has been made in the
same position as the last. The queen goes and adds
to it occasionally, but spends long intervals crawling
over and incubating different sets of cocoons, quite
unconcerned. Three or four workers prepare for
their campaign of op[;osition by planting themselves
near the cell, where they maintain a continual buzzing
and shaking of the wines.

4.30 P.M. The queen is laying.
While c eggs are being laid the tip of the
abdomen remains in the cell, and the sting appears
through the wall of the cell as each egg passes.

When the queen lifted her tail out of the cell

• I a„ not think tl,;U cells .,f c.t;t;s ;ue often o.mpl.t.Iv .IcMioye.i in a n,„,n.il
nt-st. In thK nest the u.^rkc.s' pa^Mon Ikl! Leen excite.! by the chan-e of
(jueen> on July .!2. '"^

15R'*?BWBTK»r?f^

A NKST IX MY STUDY

247

ihrt'-ti cgi.'js were seen in the bottom ot the latter.
She was now kept busy re[jellintj^ audacious workers,
but often, as on the previous day, when she
attenii)ted to follow one, another would seize the
opportunity to put its head into the cell, and make
a show of devouring the eggs, although the great
depth of the cell prevented its doing any injury to
them.

The queen evidentlv had more ea[gs to lav, for
she did not close up the cell, and the next minute
she was laying again. Again she left the cell ; again
she laid ; she was very active. At 4.35 when she
took another rest there were eight eggs in the cell.
During this interval, while the queen was working
at the wall with her jaws, a worker plunged its
head into the cell riiiht under her nose. For a
moment the queen continued to work as if she
had not noticed her, then growing exasperated she
seized the worker and pitched it headlong. She
laid one or two more eggs, and then, at 4.42,
hurriedly sealed the cell over, and commenced
guarding it.

At 8 r.M. the queen was still keeping a close
guard over her eggs. A worker occasionally suc-
ceeded in making a small hole in the top of the cell,
but the queen soon discovered the mischief and
re|)aired it.

A worker attacking the cell did no harm to the
s durincT the first half minute, but merelv, as it

Cilil

lowlv bit the cell oijen, made a <'re

acU

at fu

ss w

hich

usually attracted the cjueen. It was only if the

..i!^.r::t ^1^

248

THE humbij:-ber

':*

\p

queen failed then to come to the rescue that the eggs
were jeopardised.

August 7, 4.40 A.M. Again the cell has com-
pletely disappeared. Peace reigns.

3-5 i'-^'- The foundation of a new cell is begun.
^ 3-20 I'.M. The cell wall is already • inch high.
The workers, which show the usual e.xcitement, are
more busy working at it than the queen. They
seem even to add wa.x to it. certainly they take none
away. Only one bee woiks at the cell at a time.
At this stage the queen makes no attempt to stop the
workers, e.xcept on rare occasions when she wishes
to work at the cell herself, and then a slight push is
sufficient to displace them.

3-40 I'.M. About SIX workers are busy at the cell,
taking turns at the work. It grows in height, and
the queen still visits it so seldom that it seems clear
the workers are building it and not merely interfering
with it.

The queen had her first egg laid at 4.10,

second
,, third
„ fourth
„ fifth
,, sixth
,, seventh
M eighth
,. ninth
and had the cell sealed at

She lifted her tail out of the cell between die
laying of each i,gg. On each occasion the time her

4.1U.

4- 13s.
4-15.

4. ' /r.,

4-19.
4.20.
4.21!.

A NEST IN MY STUDY

249

tail was in the cell was only twenty to thirty seconds.
The rest of the time was spent in working at the
rim of the cells with her jaws, and often, just
previous to each laying, in making one or more
futile attempts to insert the tip of her abdomen in
the cell, her tail si'pping down the wall of the cell on
the outside. An attempt having at last proved
successful she grasped the cell with her hind legs,
and in a few seconds the tip of the sting appeared
through the wall of the cell and remained e.xposed for
a moment or two. On one or two occasions a
worker noticed the sting and touched it with its jaws.
The queen began reducing the mouth of the cell
after laying the seventh and eighth eggs, as if she
was going to close it, but enlarged it again just
before laying another tigg. After sealing, the
workers as usual became very troublesome. The
queen seized energetically the most persistent of
these, and inflicted on them a punishment which
seemed to consist of a snap or two with her jaws.

All was well with the cell when I looked at it on
three occasions between 5.0 and 7.0 p.m., but at 7.25
I found it wide open, with frenzied workers eagerly
biting at the eggs. The light being poor, I went to
letch a candle, and when I returned the cell was
sealed and the queen keeping guard. A few minutes
later I was surprised to see her open the cell and
lay three or four more eggs.

Of course the workers continued to show great
hostility to the cell of eggs. In order to ascertain
how far the disaffection extended amongst them,

2>0

THIC HUMnLK-HKE

»;i . *ii

if

urn

every time I saw a worker attack the cell I took it
iiway. In this way I removed ten workers. Still
some assaulted it, but their attacks w(;r(; less
vehement.

Aug. S, 7.j;o A.M. The cell remains, but is much
reduced in size, and is not n-arly large enough to
contain all the eggs ; some must have been removed
during the night. The workers do not now mt.lest
the cell, but cherish it, and the ([ueen takes no
notice of it.

About 5.0 I'.M. a fresh cell was constructed in
another part of the comb, and the queen laid a
number of eggs in it and kept guard over them.
At 7.45 she added one or two more eggs to these,
bringing the total number in the cell to about ten.

Aug. 9. This cell has also survived the attacks
of the workers.

At 1.20 I'.M. another cell was begun. Three or
four workers were busy at it, but the queen visited
It only occasionally, and at 1.50 it had disappeared ;
probably the workers intended this cell for the
reception of their own eggs.

At 2.45 again a cell was started ; this was slowly
completed, and the ({ueen began to lay at SoO.
Watching her at work it seemed to me that^ .she
otten missed the cell with her tail because she was
net quite ready to lay, for a determined effort always
succeedfjd.

Aug. 10, ; A.M. This third cell of eggs has also
survived the night, and is not so much reduced in
size as the last. Evidently the queen has learnt

A Ni:ST IX MY STUDY

25'

better how to protect the e^^t;.s, or iIk- workers have
become less atf^ressive.

At 5. lor.M. The queen laid another batch of
eggs and it sur\ived.

On i\ug. II, at 0.30 I'.M., she laid another; this
also survived.

On the atternoon of Aug, 12 ancjther. On the
13th, the usual daily batch was laitl at - 10 i.m.; on
the 14th, about 5.0. I'.m. Kggs were also laid by her
on the; afternoons of the 15th, i6th, 17th, iSth, 19th,
20th, and 2Jnd. I-^ach of these batches was care-
fully defended by the cjueen for several hours after
it was laid, but on many occasions the workers must
have succeeded in destroying some of the eggs ; for
instance, I saw them at 8. 30 p.m. on August 16,
busily devouring those laid that afternoon. After
the 22nd the queen's prolificness fell off rapidly, and
on several days she laid no eggs at all. On the
26th workers were seen butting one another for the
second time. This was a sure sign of the failing
powers of the queen, but on Aug. 31 at 5 p.m. I
found her defending a cell of recently-laid eggs.
On Sept. 3 she was found in a drowsy state on
the rloor of my study, and the next day she died.

OBSERVATIONS ON PSITHYRUS.

On July 19, 191 1, I dug up a nest of B. lapi-
darius victimised by Psithynis ntpestris, and trans-
ferred it to my humble-bee house for observation.
The nest contained 71 workers and a large amount
of brood. Workers were still emerging.

^'i-

■El "■

252 THi- hummlt:-hi:f x

The conil) consisted of: —

(1) TIk! empty cocoons that had contained the
first batch of workers.

(2) 'I'hree lar^n; clusters of later worker cocoons,
all empty except four cocoons in one cluster which,
by their darkened appearance, showed th; t their
occupants were about to enierj^^e.

(;,) I^our laryje clusters of nipcstrix cocoons, none
yet hatched. Tiie olde-st cluster contained 21 males
and 5 females ; the second, 2 1 males and 6 females ;
the third. iS males and 5 females; the youngest, 10
males and 9 females.

(4) Three lumps of half-fed and nearly full-fed
larva>. Three lumps of smaller larva-. Three cells
ot e-gs ; one of these was opened, and was found
to contain 29 ni/yes/ris eo-o-s

1 he Psithynis queen was nowhere to be seen,
but suspecting she had hidden h(-rself in a side hole,
I lelt a lump of cocoons in the cavity ittract her,
and returning a (juarter of an hour cer found her
on this.

To strengthen the nest I added brood and
workers from a queenless lapidarins nest.

During the next few days I watched the nest
closely. I he rupcsiris (]ueen was most (energetic,
and day and night kept running hurriedly over the
comb in all directions, uttering a short mournful cry
every minute or two ; the sound was like that
emitted by a bee when it is squeezed, and lasted
about a second ; while it was being made the wings
were seen to vibrate. Her chief occupation seemed

If

M

X OHSi:i<VATI()\S ON />S/T//)'K('S 25;,

to bf to chase certain workt-rs, probably tliost; th.it
desired to lay egj^s. When she caught a worker
she clasped it to the underside of her abdomen and
rolled over with it. apparently endeavourini; to
s(iuee/.e or stini^ it. But the worker was too small
to get hurt, and soon slijijjed away. The incurva-
ture of the abdomen, and the ridges under its tip,
peculiar to all /'sif/ijii's (jueinis, must be of great
assistance in thus dealing with n^fractory workers,
ami this, I think, is probably their function.

On July 24, at 6.0 I'.m., she hatl laid a batch of
eggs in a cell which must have been constructed
very rapidly, because there was no sign of it at 5.0.
She guarded the cell from the attacks of the workers
in much tht: same manner as a lapidariits queen,
but I noticed she spent a much longer time in giving
the finishing touches to the cell, and while she was
doing this the workers dared not approach.

At 9.30 P.M. she was still guarding the cell from
the workers, several of which hatl now grown very
bold, and occasionallv succeeded in biting holes in
it, the Psithynts having become less vigilant. The
workers shook and revolved their wings in the
greatest excitement while they v,ere attacking the
cell. She carefullv sealed up everv rent thev made.

Next morning (July 25) the cell still stood, and
the workers had ceased to assault it.

At 8.0 I'.M. the foundation of anotlier cell was
laid close to the old one. The workers were very
excited over it, nibbling it a great deal. Now and
then it almost disappeared, nevertheless the workers

x^i&>^<;.

i

THK nUMnLi:-MHH

I ' -

ll'l

254

c(,iuin.i.:tl to work feverishly at the site, apparently
making: a show of atte-mpting to devour imajrinary
i-gk^s in it. The queen took very little notice of
them hut pushed them aside when she came to add
wa.\. which she jrathered hurricKliy, chiefly from the
joints between recently-spun cocoons. r)uring the
first hour the construction of the cell made very
little progr..ss. At 1 ..30 i.m., however, it had
distinct walls.

July 26. 6.30 A.M. There was a loud hum-
ming Ml the nest when I entered the bee-hou.se,
and on looking at it I saw at once that .somethin<^
unusual had happened. The whole colony was in
.1 state of uproar, and the workers were 'rushing
about shaking their wings. All trace of the cell
that was building last night had v.uiished. The
Psit/iyrns was not to be seen anywhere on the comb,
but I soon discovered her in the tube leading to
tile ground. She was drowsy, and her coat "was
dishevelled and matted with moisture. I got her
out and dropped her into the nest. Immediately
the commotion increased threefold, and I perceived
that she was the cause of it. The workers i' ere
infuriated with her. and half-a-dozen rushed after
her and hunted her into a corner where they all set
upon her and tried to sting her. She struggled
feebly and ineffectually. I rescued her and put'her
into the vestibule. Here, however, hve minutes
later. I found the workers had followed her; one of
them had a wing of the Psithynis tightly clasped in
Its jaws and was trying to sting her with all its might.

r.zV^yc^^tm..

'JiX^'St.

N OHSI:rVATK)\S on /'S/T//}'A'{'S 2S5

Sva:\u^ .1 rcsloration to thi; workers in ilK^ir
prcsiMit tt.-iii|i(r was impossihlc, I took her away.
.Slu; was cold and Icttharj^ic antl rt'fused food, lint
at 11.15 A.M. she sreiiu-d to have recovt-rcd sonu;-
what antl, after takinjj; some lioney which I (Mfered
her. she became, to all appearance, quite w<ll and
lively.

At 11.30 I decided to jjut her back ai,Min into
the nest. The; commotion amon,L( th(? workers had
subsitled to a j,reat e\tt;nt, and they were bej^inning
to ([iiarrel between themselves, occasionally butting
one another ; but as soon as the (jueen was intro-
duced the uproar began again and they rushed
towards her and attacked her fiercely. One seized
her wing, another took hold of her leg and tried to
drag her by it, while several others climbed on to
her back and tried to sting her. She made no
attempt at resistance, but endeavoured to creep
away. Seizing a Hivourable opportunity, I pushed
the glass lid to one side and let her crawl out.
Although she had been only about two minutes in
the nest, she had in that time fallen ;nto the ame
state of depression, lethargy, and coiil s 1-
I rescued her before. Seeing that it was o;
to try and reinstate her, I killed her. F) >-
afternoon the workers constructed an equ
a new place and laid a iiumbe; of eg-
'rhroughout the afternoon and evening i
was the C(;ntre of a great deal of quarrelling
one worker then another held it, sinph; li.u
against all comers. One began to bite ii

n
use
the

in

-t

2^b

riii". iii'MHUMu:!':

|>n.l).il)ly l)cc;uis.- it had an c-i, ..r two to lay in it.
I»iit was thrown down l.y a t.-rrilir cliari;.' In. in
. mother which proi:. cdrd at onr. to seal ii|. th.'
kII. lint llic latter soon I.tt tin's wori< to rush
.11 .1 third which drew near. ;lnrryin- l)a(k
it tound ihat a fourth had dared to approach tlie
K'll. This one scvnied to l)e particularly daiitr,-n,ns
and hateful, ami sei/inj; it. it hurled it down am!
tried to stinir it. This was the opportunity for a
htth to take possession of tlu; c(;ll, and this one
Ml Its turn jealously and enert^t^tically j-iiarde<l it
until it too was eleposed. Thus the scpial.hlint,^
went on, hut there was no jjjeneral commotion as
when the I'sitliynis was prese-nt, and most of tin;
bees not en.-a^rt;d in layini,' eirj^rs were peac(;fully
occupied incuhatinn; or feeding iht; I'sitliynis brood.'
it was clear that the workers depo.sed the
I'sitliynis (pieen, and 1 think that this was the
culminating act in a revolt that the queen had all
along found it difficult to repress. The episode
was much more than a mere contlict between a
nipistyisi\wx:\\ and a nmnber of /:f/./V/r?;vV/j- workers.
It was an incident in the everlasting struggle be-
tween a parasit(; and its host, in which the destinies
of both species are involved. The ntpcstris cjueen,
following her instinct for the i)ropagation of her
specie's, laid her eggs and endeavoured to prevent the
lapidaniis workers 'Vom laying any of theirs. The
lapidariits workers, on the other hand, endeavoured
to destroy the I'sitliynis eggs, ami were read\- to
lay some of their own. The I'sitliynis would have

^^1

. j-',-i-\

X UIJSI-RWMIONS ON in/VRlS 2S7

iriiiinphcil, as slu; alvv.iys iluus in ii.ituic, had not
soini'iiuu:; !i i['i iiK'd t<» weaken lier power anil
increase that ol the workers. That something;, I
Ix-heve, was my addin;^^ workers from the (|neen-
l(;ss nest. Many of these workers contained ei,'2[s,
and it was over thes'' th.it the /'si/Z/vnis had heen
unable to maintain her aiithorily.

I think that thi; strani^e race-suicidal habit the
/apidarin^ workers have of attemptin^^ to devour
their mother's nmvdaid eLj^s is associated with the
parasitism of I'silliyi-us. It is natural to suppose
that work(-rs that attempt to devour the egi^s of
their /'si//iynts step-mother perpetuate their et^j.;-
devourin^ instinct thruuj.;h their sons that they
sometimes succt-etl in rearing. In support of this
view it is interesting to note that '"n nests of B.
latrcillcllns, a species that is not preyed upon by
any species of Psithynis, \ have never seen the
c(uei;n's e<jj,i,^s molested by the workers.

On July 2G, iqii, I took a nc^st of />. /cnrstn's
victimised by /'.v. z't-stalis and transfernxl it to my
humble-bee house. There were 49 workers, mostly
small, 3 z'csta/is males that had emer<;ed within 24
hours, the old vcs/a/is queen, a long-deatl /crrcs/ris
queen and the remains of another, 6"] z'cs/a/is female
cocoons, 103 z'cs/d/i's male cocoons, and a quantity of
larv.e and e'jfijs. One of the (•■'('■-cells contained 18
z'cshi/is eggs. The brood had the same smell as
that of the h-nrstris brood in my other nests except
that it was rather stronger ; the /crresfris workers
seemed e.xceedingly fond of it, and when I brought

■^^ I

I Si

'! ^

; f

258

THE HUMBLE-BEE

it home a worker from one of my /cnrs/ns nests
settled on it and began incubating it.

On July 22, about 9 i.m., I saw the :•«/.?//> queen
occasionally paying attention to two empty egg-cells.
Possibly these had contr.ined workers' eggs^ for at
another ti:ne I saw her quietly eating the eggs in
another cell. Sometimes she worked at one cell,
sometimes at the other. Soon she became busier
and began to work pretty continuously at one of the
cells, adding wax to it. At 9.54 she commenced
laymg eggs m this cell without having previously
worked herself up into any excitement, putting the
tip of her abdomen into the cell and clasping the
latter ith her hind feet just like a /,W/^;,, queen.
She kept the tip of her abdomen in the cell for
about two minutes, and her sting appeared throu^rh
tne V ,11 of the cell several times. During the first
minute not a worker approached, but during the
second minute she was continually harassed "by a
worker tr)ing to bite down the wall of the cell from
behind. She now kept trying, but without much
^^ffect, to beat the worker's head down with her hind
feet, which, owing to the incurvature of the abdomen
extend farther beyond it than in /,'<,;;//>;..•. The'
worker, however, did not excite or hurry her. and,
in hict, did no materia! damage to the cell. When
she had finished I saw several eggs in the cell ; they
must therefore have been laid very quickly. She
immediately sealed up the cell and then began
polishing the surface of it with her jaws. She main-
tained this p<,!.shlng work, almost without ceasin^r

{^i:i^^.::i.ii^:r'^;i^;; t{^

X OBSERVATIOx\S ON PSITHYRUS 259

for at least an hour, which was as long as I watched
her. No workers assaulted the cell, but the queen
was so busy at it, walking round and round it as
she rapidly polished it, that they could not have
succeeded had they tried.

1 his cell was standing next niorninsi
As time went on more eggs were laid, and a large
number of vcstalis males and females developed ;
but Tilthough the nest contained many fertile workers,
not one tcrrcstris male was produced.

A CRIPPLED TERRESTRIS QUEEN.

On May 4, 191 i, I caught two /f;-;v.s7'rz> queens,
A and /j, and kept them together in darkness.
Their (juarters, like those of all my other captive
queens, consisted of a nest starting-box communicat-
ing by means of a small hole with a vestibule or outer
box. On the floor of the nest-box I placed a disc of
sacking, to which were firmly fastened by melted
bees-wax two deep ct;lls of bees-wax, which I tilled
twice a-day with a mixture of honey and water ; I
also fastenetl to the sacking a shallow cup made of
old lapidariits wax containing a lump of pollen.
A had her left hind tibia slightly paralysed, the
result of an injury sustained before she was caught.
May 8, 9.0 I'.M. .•/ formed a cell in the place
that the pollen lum[), which was now consumed,
had occupied, and she laid an egg in it. lis
tongue was seen to be injured, she could not fold it
up properly.

i^yji

M^9^:

5 1. \

i5i

Pi;'
111

THE HUMBLE-REE

A looked after her brood energetically for
several days and laid more eggs, but /> was
generally drowsy. On May 13, however, both
queens were incubating the brood. The paralysis
of A's hind left tibia had increased, and, in con-
sequence of her inability to use this limb, the left
side of her abdomen had become clogged with wax.

May 14. At a distance of a quarter of an inch
from the brood a waxen cell has been constructed
-^ in. in diameter and i in. deep. This, I think, was
an attempt at a honey-pot, but no honey was ever
placed in it.

About this date two or three batches of eees
were laid in cells adjoining the first egg cell. The
queens continued to live on friendly terms with one
another, sometimes the one sometimes the other
incubating the brood, until May 26, when .-/
killed />. Such a long -continued friendship of
two incubating queens was unique in my experi-
ence, and I attributed it to the fact that both were
maimed.

On May 29 A's paralysed tibia, which had
been dead and useless for some days, dropped oft".
An enormous quantify of wax had now accumulated
on the left side of her abdomen, and as this greatly
impeded her movements, I determined after I had
examined it to remove it. The wax had exuded
from the base of each of the dorsal segments except
the ist and the 2nd, and formed lumps which
extended nearly half-way across the abdomen. The
lump at the base of the 5th segment was by far the

X A CRIPPLED QUEEN 261

largest, and, after removal, made a ball of wax
j^ in. in diameter. Only about one-third of this
quantity had exuded from the base of the 4th
segment ; the amount at the base of the 3rd segment
was equal to the amount at the base of the 4th,
while the quantity at the base of the 6th segment
-.vas very much less, and I computed it to be about
one-tenth of what had oozed from the base of the
3rd segment. The 2nd segment on the left and the
under side of the abdomen on the left were greasy,
but they bore no wax.

I mention the quantities of wax as accurately as
I was able to estimate them, because I think that
they probably represent the proportion of wax that
exudes from between each segment in a normal
queen. It will have been noticed that the quantity
given off between the 4th and 5th segments
was greater than the total quantity from all the
other segments. This is the part of the abdomen that
is most easily reached by the brushes on the hind
metatarsi, which no doubt are used to remove the
wax, for in a queen that had one of her hind meta-
tarsi slightly paralysed the brush on it was covered
with wax.

The fact that my .-/ queen, having lost her
left hind tibia, had been able to keep the right side
of her abdomen clean shows that the wax is not
removed from the metatarsal brush by the tibial
comb and passed on to the corbicula like the i)ollen.
Mow, tnen, was it removed from the metatarsal brush
in this case ? At the apical end of the metatarsal

26;

THE HUMBLE-BEE

I &<t!

\^-

!i-

brushes on the middle and hind legs is a row of
extra long bristles (shown clearly in Fig. 5, A),
which probably act as a comb for cleaning,
amongst other things, the brushes on the other
metatarsi. In the case of the present queen the
wax on the metatarsal brush on the right hind leo-
was probably removed by the metatarsal comb on
the left middle leo'.

The removal of the wa.x greatly relieved the
queen, and it did not accumulate again in any
quantity : this confirmed what I had long suspected,
namely, that the queen humble-bee almost ceases to
produce wax after her first workers appear.

Two tcrrestris workers were given to the queen the
day before she killed her comrade, and these nursed
the brood well. On June 5 the first young worker
emerged, a large and perfect one. A second worker
appeared on June 8, and others followed on June
21. Needing more room in my humble-bee house,
I united the nest to another, the queen of which
unfortunately killed my crippled pet.

3'' 1.

liiiiiii

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Towards the end of June 1S99 I exhibited two
small colonies of B. tcrrestris at the Royal Agri-
cultural Society's show at Maidstone, in a little
hive set on a table far inside the bee-tent. The
workers easily found their way to their hive although
it was surrounded by a crowd of interested onlookers,
who were able afterwards to see them depositing

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 263

their loads of pollen and honey under the glass.

Their good behaviour earned lor them a first prize.

The vibration of the railway journey from Dover

to Maidstone u[)seL the colonies a little at first ;

but the queens soon returned to their brood, and,

on the return journey, one of them was so reconciled

to the motion that she laid a batch of eggs in the

train !

When queens grow elderly and their prolificness

declines, they lose their desire to fight one another.
On July 25, 1 9 10, I added a pnitornvi queen from

a declining nest to a strong nest of the same species.
The two queens lived happily together until one of
them died on August 15. Two lapidarius queens
from strong nests, put together on August 7, also
remained friendly.

From July 15 to 27, when the above-mentioned

pratontm nest was at the height of its strength, the
weather was very unfavourable, with strong cold
winds, the temperature often failing to exceed 60° F..
and there was very little sunshine ; yet even on the
worst days a fair quantity of honey was gathered
and stored in the cells, although during this period
my honey-bees not only failed to gather honey, but
consumed all previously gathered stores, and had
to be fed to avoid starvation.

The comb and nest of each species have a
distinct smell, although to our imperfect olfactory
sense the differences do not in all cases seem great,
and we have no words to describe them ; the bees,
too, have a distinct s;nell, which is not unlike that

? *■

f

LI ■

II'

I

i

264

}^:mi^..>;xa^^^MU^^}i^^i^^m;, .

THE HUMBLE-BEE

of the comb ; this scent may be perceived by-
smelling the bees that have been collected in the
glass jar when a nest is taken, after they have been
allowed to quiet down. P.ut if these bees are
irritated, by being breathed upon, for instance,
another smell, namely that of sting-poison, is pro-
duced. That the humble-bees themselves are
highly sensitive to these different smells I have had
many striking proofs. Once I saw a liiconim queen
enter one of my domiciles in which a lapidarius
queen had collected a lump of pollen and dctposited
her first eggs. Although the lapidarius was not
at home, the /ucontiii queen bundled out of the nest
m great confusion, whether disgusted or terrified
I cannot say.

1 his antipathy to the smell of a strange species
and its brood is probably the chief obstacle in the
way of getting different species to fraternise in a
nest. The introduction of cocoons containing
workers near emergence from a xylvanim nest into a
strong lapidarius nest produced a great commotion
which did not completely subside for a day or two,
and when the sylrarum workers crept out tlu;y
were all killed. A small pellet of rudcratus wax-
placed in the same colony threw it into an uproar.

On the other hand several remarkable associa-
tions between strange species occurred. A dwarfed
lapidarius worker in some way got out of one of my
lapidarius nests and entercxl a nest of fcrrcstris in
which a (jueen and two wt)rkers were conhned.
She immediately became one of the family, paying

il!'

w^

m^^ ^.^m^-'^)!i^m,mE^mmm^^^^w.

X MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 265

as much attention to the brood as the terrcstris
workers did. When the nests in my bee-house
were about to break up at the jnd of the season,
the workers of the different s[)ecies were often found
in one another's nests. In all these cases the nests
were weak ; I have never known a bee of a strange
species to gain admittance into a strong nest Even
I'sit/iyii, as has been mentioned, are not suffered to
enter colonies of the S[)ccies on which they prey if
they are populous.

The brood of the humble-bee is less easily killed
by cold than that of the honey-bee. I have known
lapidarins workers to hatch from cocoons that have
not been incubated for two days, and I was some-
times successful in getting bees to emerge from
deserted cocoons by placing them between the
quilts that covered my colonies of honey-bees.

If I wished to do anything to or with a queen
without exciting her, for instance to clip her wings,
I found it best to let her fall into a drowsy state by
confining her in a box for an hour or two without
food.

There are two ways of holding a queen in the
fi-gers so that slie cannot sting: (i) by grasping
both wings close to the roots ; ' and (2) by griitping
the thorax on both sides.

The eyes of a humble-bee, like a photographic
plate, are less sensitive to yellow light than ours.

' Tlii-; iiictli'ii i- .li-ii -arL.- f..] ,1 Wiiil.ci luiiiiUlt-l.cc r.n.l f'.r .1 worker
honcy-l.oc nf the h.iliar. race or ,4 my llriti-h (_;..!.!en bree^l. liiu not lor a
worker of tlie I'.ii-lish bkick lioiiey-bee, nor h'r a wa>i), the .ib'lon-.en bein-
more nicikile in llie-e.

MMap

if

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lit'

266 THr: HUMBLIMU'H

I his was cliiarly clcnionstratcd by the fullowiii!,'- in-
cident. Oik- cvciiiiii; I was examining a nest in my
humhle-be(; house with the aid of a c.mdh;, it beinj;
too dark for me to see even to read, whe. tht-
(jueen escaped. Instead of living to the candle
she mach; for the open (hior. V(;t it is phiin that

I'll.. J3. — H,.w t.. hold ;i hu'nhl.-.l;,v,
lir.ispi-il III thi, u.iy liy thi- ulnL,■^ slir cinnoi stin-.

the llame of a candle is faintly perceived because if
there is no other source of light a frightened bee
will tly to it like a moth, although it is only by
e.xciting her greatly that she can be induced to'take
wing.

Several instances, not only of the eood evesif^ht
of humble-bees but of the intelligence with which

I' I .

MISCI'LLAXKOUS NOTES

•67

tli(iy use their eyes have been ^iven. I will here
a(Kl iinotlier which seems worth rccordintf. On
May iS, i()i I, A /t//>it/irr///s (iiieeii from oik? of my
artificial domiciles was s(!en visitiiiLj a huiK li ot
bluebells that had been placed on the sill outsiile
the kitchen window. A similar bunch of bluebells
was standin;^^ on a table inside the closed window
of my study. The fjueen several times came; round
to my study window and persistently beat ai^ainst
the srlass in her endeavour to reach the llowers
inside. This incident shows how humble-bees note
the kind of situation in which their favourite plants
_<;row, and how quickly they learn to search for them
there.

No one who has watched humble-bees leathering
food can doubt that they know and distinguish the
flowers by their colours rather than by the scent of
the nectar.

They know where all the clumps of their
favourite flowers are situated, and may often be
seen p;iying a round of visits to groups of white-
dead-nettle and hedge-woundwort. Not only this,
but they frequently remember the position of each
plant and even of each floret, for I have often
observed them travelling from one half- hidden
floret to another with the swiftness and assurance
of familiarity.

Under ordinary circumstances, whether she is
in or out of the nest, a humble-bee that is in an
animated state, that is, whose abdomen is e.xpanding
and contracting, always shows signs of conscious-

I

iiiil
11*

I ii'

N

it K

it-' 3H

. ' ■ 1 ■

fii . i

m

268

THH HLJMHLi:-HKI-

ness, her head, even when she is unoccupied, being
hekl erecr and her antenna- jKiiniing at attention.
But occasionally I have found a fully animated
queen resting on a plant or llower with her head
hanging down and her antenn;e resting on her face,
evidently indulging in a nap like the sleep of the
higher animals, for she awakes with a start when
disturbed. Uefore the cares of motherhood have
come upon her, the queen is very fond of dropping
off to sleep in the warm sunshine or in her newly-
found nest.

We have seen how the legs are employed in
collecting pollen and wa.\ ; tiu;y have also a third
and less specialised use, namely, to keep the insect
clean. Several pages would be needed to describe
the various motions they make in brushing and
combing the different parts of the body. It is
sufficient to say that the head together with th.
tongue and antenna is cleaned by the front legs.
the thorax by the middle legs, and the abdomen
and wings by the hind legs. In the middle and
hmd legs it is the brushes on the inner sides of the
metatarsi that do most of the work. Every si)eck
of dust and pollen is removed by repeated brush-
ings. iM'nally th.: legs are cleaned by being rubbed
together. The cleaning of the head and antenna-
is often the prelud(i to taking a llight, whereas the
brushing of the coat on the thorax and abdomen is
frecjuently performed when the bee returns to the
nest after a dusty forage in the fields. IMany
queens when they grow old get careless about

' 1

SS¥iSl'^i

.■*i-iu'.

MISCELLANKOUS XOTHS

269

cU;;ining thcinsclves, thtiir unkempt co;its bccoiuiiiL,'
matted and ^Teasy.

In a siidtlcn shower a /a/>l(iaiiu< or /cnrs/r/s
worker will sometimes take shelter umler the eaves
of a buildini; or tiie horizontal boii^h of a tree. 1
have never seen a hon(!y-bee doing this.

It may be ohsiM-ved that the centre of attraction
and affection in a colony of lunnble-bees is not the
queen nor the food, but the brood, the futuri: re-
presentatives of the race, and especially that which
is soon to emerge.

• %«. 1. f.\r_ *" . jiB^*

-V ■ ui

i'i,\ri; M.

"^.S

m\

r-

J y

li lapulanui

p. h

13 pi-utoruin
Bjoiittlici
llonHorncui

B.hppomCU, D.C"'-'"-'"""^ ^iM'n.'-ifr'.ln, f '"t''''"''l^'J-'

'^;ivA A^,«,

P.i c/istinctus ps.burhutcllu-i Ps. cumptstris Pj tfuadricolor
Armatures of aii the British Species of SOMSUS and PSITHYniiS.

M

m

m

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illi

■yj< ■

'!!!«!:

i,^.

ii

I ! ;T-
1 ■ -j'

ADDITIONAL NOTES
MADE IN JUNE AND JULY 1912

!?

The Season of 1912.^0ucciis of tlie common species were
iiiuisii.illy abundant in the si)ring of 191 J, probably as
the result of the favourable summer of lyii. On still,
warm days their murmur, searchiuL^ for nests in woods
and co[)ses, was continucnis, antl it was often possible to
guess corrcctlj' which species was searching in one's vicinity
by its note alone, that of />'. tiircstris being the loudest
and most often heard. Ikit although the weather con-
tinued very favourable, nests in June and July were scarce,
and it was found that large numbers had been destroyed
in early stages by Brachycoina dcvia.

Microsporidiosis in Humble-bees. — In the Rfport on titc
Isle I'f ]Vii:;lit lu'r J)iscdsc {Miirosporii/iosis- issued by tiie
Hoard of .Agriculture in May \'j\2, Dr. H. 15. Fantham
and Dr. Graham-Smith state that they have found in the
ch_\lc stomach and Malpighian tubes of a number of dead
and dying specimens of />'. lapidm ins, tcncstris, and hor-
torunt, picked up under trees at Cambridge and elsenhere
in August and September i 9 1 i , a protozcjal parasite be-
longing to the genus Noscnia, resembling N. apis, which
has recently caused enormous mortality amongst honey-
bees in certain parts of Britain.

How the First Eggs are laid (p. 19). — The lump contain-
ing the first eggs was carefully examined in several nests
in 191 2. A nest of />'. lapidariiis had i 2 eggs, all in one
cell, and laid in a bundle. A nest of rudcnitiis had 14
eggs, each occupying a separate bed in the pollen. Another

27; T

r^fr^m>^ •^■^■-^

■^T

THE HUMBLE-BEK

nest of rudciatits had six young larv.u, varying from the
size of a lettuce seed to tliat of a mignonette seed in one
cell, 3 eggs in another cell, and ; eggs in another.

How Pollen is collected (pp. 20 to 24). — Many varie-
gated loads of pollen collected by Boinbi, consisting of
two or more kinds, were examined during 191 2, and they
showed clearly not only that the pollen is pushed into
the corbicula in the way explained on p. 23, but how the
load is built up.

About 40 per cent of the loads brouglit home by a
colony of tcncstris between July i 5 and July 25 could be

- mffiANCE TO CORBICULA CORbfcULA^"

I'll;. 34.

;. Sh,,l|,m load .)f poll. Ml 111 llif Iffi lurliiciil.i of ^i worker of Ilomhii .r-nin/m
c.ipiurr.l .It il.-;ui-ii.'ttli- on July 4. i,,i2. /;, Srctioii through a full load of
polK-i. )n th.' I. ft Lorbicul.i of .1 u,,rk,T of/,'. ,',ir,,/ris t.ik.n on t-nnrini; its
iu->t, July 2;. 1912.

Thi- l.iycrs ,.f tin- .lift.T.-nt kinds of pollni .ire numbered in the order in which
they were eollected. ll.id the „,;,vn,m worker f;one on eollecting nnd g.ithered .i
full lo.ul, the pollen show n in its corbicula would have (x
to as " I, yellow " in lig. />'.

■ pied the region leferred

seen at a glance to consist of two kinds of pollen ; in a
few of the.sc, on closer examination, three c more kinds
were detected.

Pollen -primers (p. 43,).—/;. latrcillclliis was considered
to be a pollen-primer because pollen was found under the
eggs in a nest in an advanced stage examined in 191 i.

fmBMM:^^^mmtsm^ii^Mmj!s^mmmm

ADDITIOXAl. XOTHS

■/:>

liut in a nest in an earlier sta;^c i^ept under observation
in 1912 the c;4;4s were laid in cells that cont.iined no
pollen, althou^li in at least one case pollen was [lut into
the cell and removed before tlic ei;;_js were laid. Slionld
future in\esti^ation showtliat lalrci!lt\!us is a pollen-primer
only under abnormal conditions, ,1 better name for th.e
^rou[), consistin.;^ of nidcr<Uns, hoii^'iniii, I,itr,i/ic/!HS, and
(//i7//<i,'"//('//(///.v, would be " I.on,L,^-raced Humble-bees"; the
term " pollen-[)rimers " could then be restrictetl to yudcratiis
and liortoniiii. / atrril/c/hts and ({i^liiii^uciidns are not
chj.sel)- related to rudiratiis and /inr/or/iii!.

Development of the Queen (p. 50 '. -I ha\c succcedetl in
;.;;cttinj; queens reared b)- />'. latuillrllus from e^i;\s laid
early in the (piccn's life in the followin;^ maimer : -Two
hitrcillcllits nests, in which a few workers had alreatl}'
emcri^ed from the fust batch of cocooirs, were joined
together, and the ([uecns atul all the youn;^ larv;e were
rem(n-ed, and also all the eggs exco[)t three. 'Ihe lar\'a'
that hatched from these three egg- had thus about t\\enl_\-
workers to care for them exclusivt \\\ and tiie\- ile\elo[)ed
into females as large as ([ueens. 1 iiat these were really
queens aiul not giant workers w.is sh. )\\n by the lact that
they paid no attention tcj the brootl that was subse(iuently
reared, and as soon as they were old enough to ll\" ihey
left the nest for good.

An attempt to breed from Queens of ItuDihiis saiiuiisis. — -
On .May 25, 191 2, I received from Mr. 1".. H. \evinson
at Abcrsoch two ([uccns of />'. .\i>/\ii//s/s. froni which I
attempted to breed in the manner explained on [ip. 1 31
and 132. Within three da\s they had settled down
together very contentedlv', and on the fifth da\- it was
plain they had eggs, which the\- incubated assiduou-l>-.
I gave them two just-hatched AvvvvZ/yx worker- on June 1,
and a just-hatcheil lii^iiiiiiiis workci on June 4. The
brood lump swelled rapiilK- on June ~ and S, but on the
morning of |une 9 1 was disappointed to find it much
smaller and three half- fed larva' Ixiiv^ in the ve--tibule.
K.\amination of the lunq) showed that it Kjntaineil one

ii-i'!'

Ill

rUH ilUMULE-BI-:!-:

po*'

cgt;. Confined /rnrsO/s queens sometimes eat their own
or each other's e.:,fj^s.) I now separated the two (juecns —
they had rcmaineil ^ood friends -j^ivinj,' to tlic one a fir^t
batch of dcrliamcllns cocoons, soon to iiatch, anil to tiic
otJK-r a first batch of latycilli-llus cocoons. I'.ach (luccii
incub.ited her brood with the i,'reatest attention. In each
case tiie worl<crs that hatched were at tirst tricmlly to tlie
(jiiecn, but later the)- tiinied the {[ueen out of the ne-t
and laid ct^t;s of their own.

Behaviour of Queen of Psitlivnts nt/'rs/n's in Nests of
ln))ni>iis la/^iiiarins. — On June 13 I put a /7^/',\v///.s' queen
into a laMdaniis nest containing; 14 workers and much
brood. I he lapiiiarins (|ueeii ru>hed out of the nest antl
ran about the vestibule in threat aL;itation f jr a Ioul; time.
Occasii.nall)- she peeped into the enlnuice, but she liastilj-
witluhew. Once i i,rcntly pushed her in, but with extra-
ordin.i"- strciv^th she forced herself back. I next dro])pcil
her in!>.' J.'.e nest, but ^he dashed wildly about and e-ca|>ed
at:;ain \. the ve^tibule. The rsithynts, emboldened by
her fear, tried to stiny; lier as slie passed her. I afterwards
removed the J'si//irr/is, but the Inpi.l-.u :iis ([ueen did not
dare re-t'Uter tlie nest, and she fell into a drowsy state in
the \e^tibule.

.\ iipiiliiriiis nest containin,;; a nif'csli-is queen was
kept under observation for three week-, from July 2 to
July 23, 191 J. On July 2, when the rsitliynis was intro-
duced, the nest containetl about 30 workers and a ;_;reat
i1ca\ of brood, and she killed the ui/'i</,ii/!is (nR-en on the
same da\-. The I'sitliynis spent most of her time chasin;^-
certain workers over the comb, and thus pre\ented them
fornn'ni; cells in which to lay their egL,'s. Hetween Inly 10
and Jul\- 23 she laid a larL^e batch of e-^s almost eveiy
day. She built the ei;-^-cells herself with wax she Leathered
in tlie ne-t. The workers became very excited over the
c;^;4-cell durini; it- construction. .She made her cell and
laid her e^L;s in it very rapielly. On one occasion the
C'-^'^s, numberini;- 23, were laid in six minutes. Durin;,;-
ovipositing; she always crossed her hind metatar.-i behind

m\jmsmm.

ADHITIOXAL NOTF-S 277

the cell. Sometimes she constructed two cells in different
[)l;ices :it tlic same time, and then, wliile she laid her e<;^'s
in the one, the /ii/^/</<irt//s workers, amid imich qnarrellinj^,
woukl often seize the opportunity to laj- tiieir e^_t,'s in tiie
other. .After slie liad t'ini>hed ii^uanlin^- her own c_i^f^s she
ili'inolished the cell contaitiin;,; the Lipidarius ej;i;s. Siie
was hcaid to utter the mournful cry (p. 2^1^ on man}-
occasions. On July 23 I removed her from tlie nest for
four hours to let the workers finish iayiiiLj i-,i;gs in a cell
which she- had bei,nm and they had built up, but when 1
put her back the workers attacked iier and stun;^ lier to
death. .XlthouL^h she had laiti a batch of e^'t^s onl)' a
(]uarter of an hour before she was removed, the workers
did not molest them. It may be the rsilliyins kneads
a ilistasteful saliva into the wax covering; her clj^s.

On another occasion, a stroni;- inf^idaiius nest in wiiicli
a iiil^cstns (jucen had been rei^nini; for eleven daj's was
overturned. The shock of the accident seemed to unnerve
the r.stthyi ns, for she wandered aimlessly about th.e nest,
and two hours later the workers mobbi'd her and stun^
he- to death. It apni ars that when the col<jny is popidous
the /•///', -.v/r/.r will lose her life unless she maintains con-
tinuously lier rule of repression.

On July 20 I put a searching ntf^istiis ([uecn into tlic
vestibule of a hipitdiriiis nest containing about So workers.
She passeil into the nest w itliout hesitation au'J imme-
diately produced an uproar, the workers and tlieir (jueen
rushing hither and thitlier in great excitement. 1 he
excitement died down in about twenty minutes, and on
lifting the nest I found the Psitliynis in a dying condition
with six workers attached to her tr\ing to sting her and
thirteen dead workers lying aroun^i her. A few da\s later
I iouiid in this nest a female of the deadly parasitic motii
Aphoiiiiii sociella, and another of the deadh' fly Ihacltycoiua
'iiviiK but the humble-bees paid not tlic slightest attention
to them.

27S

Till' HUMBLK-BKE

fhysocrphalii ni/if'cs. — Mv. I-". l'".. Aiiston nf tin- Mriti>li
Musciiin has kiinlly cxainiiicd tlic pupa that dcvi'lopcd
from a !ar;^c (liptcnius lar\a that I IoiiikI iiisiil.' tlic
ahilomcii of a ([iici'ii of A', /irirs/ris, stun;,; to di'ath on
J id)- 24. i<)I-, and lias found it to hilon- to one; <>\
thi; Conopida', " vci\' prohaljl)' to th'- spfci(;s l^nown as
/'/nsi'(Y/'//ii/(i riififis, l'"al)r., wliicli is parasitic in thc
abdoiiicn of tlip iniacjo of /.'. /,-n\s/n's as wx-ll as in tlial
of other species of lloiiihiis. It apjiears tiiat uht'ii tiu-
parasite reaches the final lar\al or pui)ai sta^^e t!u' host
lrei|ueutiy, if not alwaj's, perisjies." Tlie ipuen was one
1)1 ed the previous year, and was taken with her nest, in
which the first workers were about 10 hatch, on Jul)' 14
■["he da\- before she was killed 1 noticed that she wa^
breathin;^ at a slower rate than normal, ,ind she had laid
no eirijs for at least two weeks.

Ill :

aMitic«.\i^-..4t-.;..^-/

i.\i)i:x

■ iliiKiini.il |«'ciinrn^, i.)., iMiz/mi;, how |.ii idiKi'l ii

.lINxlH-n .if li\imljli--l)ir !'il i:'T IjIoikI, 1,> i-,!,! i-, jiiU'I -I'l'l .I'.m.i, K. 1 I'l.

J". lo;,. 1 ii>. 2_vi. -'"I '.<'■'■ -■■».'■ ---

agrorum. Bombua. ,!'■. 4-' i,!' ti> t.. . \mi. -. j. m1< hm . -• ^^ j.;-

;), '■;. 104. 14.-;. 193 li. .A|.- -> |il.MMiii-, JV
iiitiMii 1 ., ;.-.;iii-i , ii_>

jiiiniii.i , r:. 144, 14-, campeatris. Psithyrus, ' .->, :'•■ ;-;.

Iii:i' t;i,n ..f, K, '2 147. 216

JOIIII- ,,|, 111 Tllillrs I |t, ,,■«■/,, v/.. ■,. 111. ■!> nl /- "■■. /.iir'/in.

iii^ir iif ,|i/-.T, j.'H, j|; 1511

1.1" 'AMik' r>. 8. ;i, 1,0, ii|(y, .'i: j;( ( ■,ii-rl.-i .I.,-,'-, 17, p, 15.
/'/'/;,<■,'//;, .•,/.- 70
Jti.'/i.flu'i;:. \-\\

anls. I i(j. IJ7. J-'.:;

Aj'hjtiiut <riU-iUi. 73, J77

in\tuii<. v.irifly of /■i'ii:::,y . — /.'/ -■!■•'/

I'M

.:'\v//..'i(//.. willf'A of /ii'':!' If nu'ii > -

,:'„<. 4v. 177
iimKinirr, 144. 1 |'>, 2JJ

III" I'.ull slU'i 1. s, J71 I I'l. lie; \\. I
a-^sufi UKin bitv\frll <tIMIlt;<: sprnr-,

57 '33- '3". -''> -7^
luiic Ir, ^1 •J4. 171, JO-,

itfiliil'ii^ HI hunililc-ii'i> iH'^t-^, 73.

11 nf II1-.I-, 4;, 2 1 i

ll.\(l^fl>. 01

barbutellus. Psithyrus, 'jm, 7l.. 7
214

iK't-'lIrs in imni!i!r-l)f«'>' iu'>l>, iS

l>iii),'M.ini, ('. r , on ihi' win^-hmik-, ij j romli r,t IminS;.- In r, 44

liinl-. dc^tnictlM- to liunililrlHTN. 3i, loiiiini.n i .nili'l-l

Cfllllli.;. ■

Cf|lll]!l'lll-, I J). JJO

rhc'k-. 145

1 IranniL; pii n '■~^. -"'^

cll|i|>Hlt; llii- i|Ui'i-li - V. iiii;.., in;, ^t'li

i-o.it. -iv li.ri,

fOI'iiiii^ ji;

l.ilt'-n liow n. 40

II. ..t I Ill-Ill- III, _•.,, ; j

illrl c lll^trr- of, ,5;

i.f cilfltTlMU ~]MH II--, V'. I ;,=; I -

uSl, 185 11,11, l>)i(
o!" /'./Miv'/o. 'I ,
coll'Tlint; spt'i Illl'Ml-, 2-'0

I oloiiio .It Mi;,;iit , i7. i-i'

tn-illliy, IJ.l
ciiloiir-. t'.iilwii', "I. 14 ■', -.-.i

Iiliii4ii'll-. c-\|)rrinieni with. 2(17
Bombi, divisions of tin' i;iiti-!i, 1 ; i
Bombua, il'-iiv.ition of n.inu' 4

l;f.•-lli^^oly of, 1 z
Hombylius. 144

Hrachycom.i J . I,:. •-. 127. -':;
hri-iUliini; app.ir.itus. 1 1
l)r(H-(lin'j liy sclrction. 14 j

i,eciiii('iis, J23
Hiii;ht\si:n. Mr> 1'.., ^
Hr'o«n-l),ui(l'''l I '.iiiiiT-l- ■■ In;

intinriiiiiit. s;citii'U ip;. 1 ;i- lo lii'i'ti!
I III. ,3.>

ki-i iiinu coiojii. , ill, I JO
confnsus, Bombua, .-4

I f I'//.!/., 70

' corl.iciil.i, or poiliM ln-ki'I, jo J4 j; ;

r,')-'iais. v.inc'tv ol l!.'m'<i,y lu.inru .
178
I i-i'iver, Sl.TiUMi -, for (ioniR i|o^, ico
I c vered u.iy to -iiif.n i- in'-i 47
i ' >.v/'A'//>. ;.,//* . 70

cuUuraanua, Bombus. i;i 171

-ii!

!lJi

w

^^'^ TiU'. iiu.mi{i.[m;i:i-.

f'ullllMls lluhrl.lr l»,, |;| ll,.„,.,. mIIkiiI | ,,,

rMin,!,.,,, r.n i-ln-I..,- ,„,,„, ,,„..„. -,-. ,1,„,', ..I !■> Iminl.l,. I,.-,.., ;;

'■"' t.il,!,-, ,| |,v i„„,il,|,..|„.,.,, ,

l',iruiii,( ., n,i,,if. nh>. , ,111,1 Iniiiil,:,-. , , ., ,,.,.,'

i; 11 1 ", 1, . 1.,.. 223

.11 l.-tlll, -.il;. n .1 ; ■,

(■....| f..i huiiiLl. I,,

derhamellug, BombuB. 1), H^' -| i..»l~ .1,,. i„ mi

, '?"• "9 ■ ii,^,,;,K,..,f /,-;,,/,,,,, ,„,,.,, ,

''"^""""'"l '•'■ !• •^'-■. '-■'■. IJ- I il Ml /•,..•,,- ,, I,,,!,- -. ' '

ijj, Jj;
iliin(ir|ihiNni in /;,./;/•;,, ,;,J, ,,:-,, . , -,,

111 /'w.'/n/vi. , ,;w,-. ,/,■/,, . , - ' l;' IHMlli.tls, sii;|i, ,,| m,, III ,1 ,

diatinctua, PiithyruB. ' , i,i 2io '"' ''"

diatinguendua. Bombug, 1 1 .; i,, '"i m '!■ - '.i /' '-i ,„,, r.|,,

<-^<'. 187. ^ji J7; globosua, Psithyrus, ji ,

■liMiilnitioii ,.f |,;„;,l,i,'|.,,.,, ., '""'' S'l'.'A lliiiii; ■, -l,,.,., I.;,

''"iii'--'i' 11 lil liuiiil.:r I,,', , roi, J..;

1-I.|ll|.l.l.-, I ,>, Il ,:r ,.| Ipillil.!,' I,rr. Ji

'Inliii.llr., ,irlil;, 1 i!

1 ..lo:n ;iii; ,.l th,-, i ,;
ll'.iv l.lu-h. .1 .dm! ,,,

I 1'

"llrli 1,, ,.|,rii. 1 JI
.iu.-l- t.i'UMrli /,■,,, •,, ,|i,.rli-, ;, l"- ■.!, 5.'

I"lurrn /. W/;. , 1 IP I /'.,••,;>/ .V ,. ■ . i , !, . 1; 1 1. ■ , nl Ml 1 i 1 1|, 1 , | , 1 - | „ .,

ihi.iil.'d s|,r, ill,, „.. ;-, ,j; ,,, ij,, II 1111.11. Mr, \ II I--.

" ■'" '■■/■'■.■. '!• iplll. l.ilirU 1,1 /.■. /,,

I .ii'\ -n.-iiiii; I liiiiil,',. I., ,,, |,,^ ,■'-, /„,,.', /■■,',,,, I -,

' .iruii;., 1(1, ...■; II, i|ii ll.inil,;, -1„ ,. ,,,-

I'.iti.ii. k.\ ,\ r , I.) helferauus. Bombua. ;", i; ' :, ■,■

I'.'li-'.ii, I \ , .ill i1il:Iii, _■ i , .,11 ,,-, I j,-;, 195^

■ iiiii;, ;i, -..

hil..-iii,i:,
..I /.'

■l I

11 II 1 .111:11. -III. Ill, I 1 1

i-\i Miiiic'it ,11 Iimiil; .il, ;r. j,; 1 ..l/i'/;; ,', . . j l|. .-ii - , j,

-•i.!, .;5- -V" "I /'i."/i'.'. ., 7J

'if^l. I 'I, J7 ! I |..tl.i, 1:,, 1,1, 1: )i:h„,

li"« l,iil. 1... ;;, J 11. zy: 2- i. j->, "" I'^rini ■ , 1,,,, ..: .

Ml l!.' .111.1 i|ll. Ill, ,1 ' ' ! h,,|,|||i,_. Iiiiiiil,!,, |„„ s ,11 tl

..r Imiiil.l.i-I,.'.-. j^ I jiT,

'il I'-ilh. I ■,• . 1,8 j hii,iiiii^' iiistiiui 111 I: in;,. .

lil w..iki'r-, ;j, _•;; , li. .ilv. .iiiiuiiiil ^l. .i .■. I , ;{, .,
'■/',-,.■>;., /.',.m,'i-,,, •.,;■.!,.■, ,-^;„i,. III. Ii.illl hlliiil.!.-l.f.-., .,

.■lr\Mll(>lw 1,11 ~i\lli \,-iil,,i| ...rin, I,; ,.|- l;.m nil I., tri i ,111, i , ], ,| „ „,1.

I'., i.l . 17,-

I<rilin;.

/'..■'//w,v,. .|ii., 11,. _,,j, _.,j^ linn ,111,1 ilm k, _•,- ji;

til. ■!!- fulU'lll. II -.livy, ■,!,,, 1 _>; , \lll,|.- ^t,ll,i,|, j-

>l»'''K''!li'' "f I'l-i- ll.illl < ,,,,,,,11. ;i ll,'l.fy I„|| 1,1 .|W, ,11. j;

'■"'■nil' ■■ ..I 111,' hilinl.lr-li,..-, f), -,, ,,; h v-imUs, ,111,1^, ;,||, , _, ^

.•,\<il>iii I, -'I '■ .,1 w.irkn-, iV.

v\v^. I j;, J'.- I Il(liu.\-.>,u , ,,r h,,|l-\- i,!:^, 1:, J.-; ,-, ■

hortorum, Bombua, i; i| i,, p

l.iilini; ,,|s|..ii,n„.i,s, i,:., jjj 7., 1,,.. ,,,, ijfj,',,., ,-; , -,

179

1 ,.,,il;l.'s, !._) j;, hi.U ■•• liir liUlll!,!,, 1,..,.,, ,,,

i|Ur.i|,., |.,, I ,n, ^j-: .;,, hiiiiihl, 1,..,.., 1,.,,,, ,li,tin..;ii,-l,,-.l I,,

ttTtiliMiiioii .,f tl,,«i-i-s hv hiiiiil,!,.-!,, , ,

Z" I llfr.u',inil..- llmiih!, .I„,p ,. ,

, ," ''"'■'■"- '- : iii.liiMi-v ,i|- hull, 1,', ,!„.,. , ,^ ,,, ,-

lii-lil-riiu.-, .' . Mo ,„ . ' 1 1 -■ -- • -1 ■ 1/

"-'"'"«'"■'"■■'■" 'i"-"v •■ .iM.lli,,, j nu|ui.itu..|i,... „|luin,l,l,..l„.,. ,,,

intonii;i'iic.' ,,r liiiiiiM,-l„T, I,,-. I 5,,.

■-'3f. 2^},. 2''J, JI,;, jhH
i:,in: ,,,, \.iri,-ty of /A. «//',/ , /■ ,,/,„■,,,,.,.
18 I

iM'IWrCn work, I -. J.}I, j;i, j;,;;

lirsl li;ii,-h ,,f hrocid, 1,, _.,,, , ,_ ,8;

100
ll.iUi-IIuni, 14 (

■ ..■«.

ixi)i:x

281

Mu^ ■ - iii.ni.lil.l,-,

I'-l'nil.i 1,. l.i,'. h .|U''.ll-, ;;, J n

joncllui. Bombui. 167

K' V, liiuiililr !<.•., n. ,1 111 till- i!.ilin
\' i- ,11. .Ml

K.lln. W , r ,, 1.-/

lapiaarius, Bombus. 1 i. i-~. ^■■. .';
-"■, -■:■ (-• !i ('<. t'-^ !■(, I",
1;, -I, ;.■ ; j, ;, ■ : '7, i>w,
7s. u; . i/v 1 '1 . I'l;. 11; 1 I w
I -' (. I ^" 1 -■ '■. 1 y. I ,(;. I J7
I |M 184, -•-•;, .•!-•. J c -';i

t!i»lM'-.! h .itl'HI ol , I ^r), I ;t), .; J ; J;j

lapponicus. Bombus. i;'>. 1;; 169

l.il^.-t .11. 1. I I , 11)7

I.11-- I ,,!!i lliiiiilil hi-, i;-:
I. lit;' I . ii.lr:i Miiiiiiiii' I.. .-, 17 ;
I. in V Ml /,■•■•/'•, , .,-, J : ;•,

\\■■^\ till, . ;. )_■

.4 I'.r'iv,:, . '• .

/,.■..•« .';, ,•, , I |.,
■: ! ^' I . 1 i '1, ^ .■..■I

latreillellus, Bombus. 1 ; 1 ) !7. \\.

I -"■, 1 .^7, 1 S.'., I .'>, i 1 , 1 ;. I.

182. -Ml J7i. -'-- -7''
l.i/mi--^ ( ,iii"-il ii\' r.-'iliUL:, I J (
liL;lit, ~i-ns,liM'nf,s nl huiiili!r li.i-s In,

Iiiniii, J (

l.oii;; lli.il ll.inil.;i- I..'.-, j;;

lucorum, Bombus, t.;, ,.. !7. ;,.'<, 4 >.
(1, i.i, .);, ^!, ;7. 7-'. '".;. M''.
i.;a. 160. \i\\. ^i.\. -'M

Itl : ^'1: ■!!:, \^\\•\\ itl'.'.'. /:n'l''ni!. i'\

iil.ili- Imi.i.l, I',

m.t!,-s, tijuiii lit l''i}!':,-. ij. 17-

l!ii;lU nl l'.:lhv,-t.. -1

ii'iw (lt-imuiti--!it'(], I J t

lili- ot, y. ;j

111' /'>.■''■;:■;■/ ., liu.v (l;-.tltlL:il, -!)r(i , Jo^

ni.uiii.il]'-, iir i,i',\ -. I !i, J } I } >
mastrucatus, Bombus, 1^7

m.Ui-M,lI 111! .Ulllli 1 1! liist^, ID J, loH, IJi)

ini-l.ihi-'lll, 1 17, [ ;S

llii'iuii!\' in liuinfi'>'-li'T-, [o. o;. J ^o.

mendax, Bombus, u

nirt.it 11 .s,!-, j.o. ji. j;. 14'.. I'i^ 171.

17J. jtf), -'I I. j'H, j'j8, -'7''
mici'. 81. 1 18. i.-i,

nil- III, 'A prnli'Ltiiin fioiii, i i-,. i-' <
iiiilitiii' ti>' -.. i!'-, 1 ; 1

niillipfili'i loO, j.'7

iMimii r\ m /'■if'i\ nt^ 71. ji j

Ml / .'.'7*, '/ / ■'I'li! ''; ,',; V 1, 7')
mill, 7')

/."■,-.' !-!!•:, \-.i::i'l)' ij //, jti'ft.'H. r,.;
moli-s. Hi. I ~'i
Mi.iiir, K. V I, I)., j.Mj

\1.. urn, 111! Il;nilli'i--li.r, 1',.,

muscorum. Bombui. '■-'■',. 1 |-: 1 vi,
197, jj 1, J) I

'/n '. .'/ u>'t , !>■ '■;'■,.. '.( >iiiilii, -"■'•

.: ^r.'i n III
\ht':/.' I tNi.fi. J, 7.;
\1 vrf'iu .1 fn^'ii!, I I *t

.\''//y<v lii.^; !Y I, evil, let from, .(8
ti'-sl., iltitK 111 10.;, 1"^. 108. Iji(, ;;2'i

[in-iilli;, oi

run kiiiL,' |Hi-iIi' .11 ot, 8:;

lil-iiiL;, .-;'., 11,2
%'■ A in,..n, \Ii, r. li . 10 j, 1118
.\i".\ /i-iI,i|h1, I'. >■'!'! 111. 7. I ;7, I ;9.
■7"

'•O'/rMfi,, \.ti il'tV I it /•' v/i.-itii, \,*
in:.:!i', .siiiiiii, \.i!,it\- ot l!o»l'ii'

,', '/.v'.''/,v 1 , 10-:
Nl nth .\iiiii .1 (II ll.'n:' ! , 148
iiuMiliii lit iii.ilis ,inii i|uri[i-, in iii'it. >i

III ^\||| ki-: -. Ill I ■■■l, ; ^
.V ,"/.■, J7,i

oli,i-r\,ii!iiii II, 'si.,, I,.,, (,.(

/. ■ 'i',',/,/i, \,ui'lyot //i I '//.''■//. ii::i^,,.iti"i .

1 1,7
|i,ii,i^ii.-. of th,i hiinilii. -\«.c. 7 5

|),ll,isill-lli ill /,','//,■'/,., ^;

lit //. t,->i, h.. ii|ion '1', i':/.r}um, ;7
III rwh\ n, -, '10
/..■., ,vi'/// .■/,'. \.in<t\ lit I'cinru' <:^t\>r'tw.

"M

/'■'.■.'/,,' r/,07 *, J, v/ . -,-;, ij-
plioliii^r.iiiliiii'.; ,1 ijii,-,-ii 111 iin nr-t, 1 58
pins for iiiiiuiiliiii; ~i,i 1 iiiirii^, jjj
I'liihi', .\lij.|i Nil. ;. .|8

I'lKkrt-ni.lkrt-. |l , 1 ; 5

k-t III till' liiui-li. 1 ij
piiili n, li'i'.i c-nMi'd'-i, to. J7 (

IliAi. lil'po.lll'll, .|0, J (O

«!i,'r<' ilrp.i>.tii;, iv. -8, .(o

poil.'ii porki'ls, 43

I'l !!'ii piiiiii'is, .| !. 1 ; i .'71

ii^l ot llio Hi ili-!i, I ;j
I'oilrll— fill ! ■., 41. 1 ; 5

ll^t 111 llii- l;iiii,ii, I ;_■
pomorum. Bombus. 201
pratorum. Bombus. 13, 14, i", 48,

41, 5.1, (.)_!, 08, I ;:j, I ill, 147.
I ;o. 166. 171. -"|,i
pi I'-ii ', iiil; ^pmiiu'iis. 2Z0

TIIK HUMBI.K-HKE

T, t

rr : '-,

t J^>'..-i.

y »*wi

PiUbyrui, .m.. i.i-.i i.y »..rkfrs, t^.

-'51, .'7(1. J77

lliitt c|]-.li ,t;uiv||ril liulli /utlllti,', iu\
how CM lu.ll-.l llMlll ll.MiHili S. IJ;
illr ln,t..l> .,f .,,, ,.;', j;;

in.il'-. "I, 7.'
oii^m ut, 7 I

1" 11" I llli.ll .nill cl'THllli'M llf

M.IMlc, }

M> n iiMiii; liei .'lil;-., j^H, J7fi. J77
|.n|.. , .'H, ,1

quadricolor, Piithyrui. "H, jh

'|Uri-|l, I IliimHiI ill.' Ill, 11;, J (.'
llr.lll ,,| ,,!,!, ; ,

ili'frnihiii; liir ii;f;-.. 51 .■ 17

■ l'\.!ii|jni. lit 1.1. ;.., J-;
fllr, I ..I |,„, .,1. ..,1
r\( .■,.;\.' i,,lijlicili III, I (H
ll"W ill-lilllIUI-iirrl, I ) (

llllfU l-plMl , p,l 1, J ^',

l.ll\,l el, -,■)

l.imiU ' i;i;~ .■)" -I.* -'7''

111'- .il, !, !-■

il '111' 'iiii'.; iii.^tnii't 111, ^'i )
•-'•iiicliiiiu I -^1. 17, iH, J77

ri'' ll'', .nil It I. 1! I.) r, , up\ ,lll:h. l.li

\>'-\. 1U(

lir.'i-ilin;; in o ilil;li''ni' nt, 1 (.->. J51;,

pl,Hiil ill rnl|iH llr-t^ I jij

r,}i,:'li,. Il.-iiru.. --I I- .7.//;,, •;//,■/,'«,
I. nil. vhi'li'TiiiL; liiiiii jiii-i
I'll 'l.iiri, 7, ..■,!

ki-'l--ll,lllkr,| (',11,1,-1 br,,, iKq

i'-i;ii'n.ii I ',|i\ "I i^i'iii r I ,(H

ruderatus. Bombus. 7. 41. 4;, ,),,

i<>7. I !", i.i'', 1 )7. U-. 1 17.
14.;, 173 ^7;
I "I"Ur liiiiiui jili'Mii in, I 70
rupeatris, Paithyrus. (o. i-v 2O8.

Ill'' lii^n.u i.f, (11 , J7f. ..77

nil PUIIlhll il'V ul. -2 ;-', J77

.s.UUMn .III- iiii;,'ni.'iil- in ..l.^civ.itlull

IH'^I^. i,j, 1,1.
^,l^■!l:tl' iiniTii 57. (,',, j^j
S.uiiulri^, i;ilu,iri|, i . 1 |, 1 ;i ,,i7'i
nil IiiiiUii- ■ .iiiii'^ liiinil.l.'.l'",'-,, Ki

-<iip.-, l,;.(

'Cciil riiiiUc'l by III. ill' liiiini)l''-l)0'', 13,

SedijuuU, I'lnf, ,\, ,,11 S/'/i,,nii,irid

t^'iid';. 80
M-tlini: ^jiftinii'ii^, 2J2
Sh.ikc^li.Mif, H.:
Sh'irMiii.vil Ihiinl.l.'-I,.'.-, i8j

-»hi '^'w s, 8 1 , 1 1(^

|ir'itnti'iii (roiii. I Icy. I J.,
■.link.-. Hi

Mirill C.iiili r 1«'.'. i.|i
-i;;iit "I h'.iiii!.!i Ix-, ,, A, -lU. .j-,

jyi, j'.i.
M.iili'n wiMiiltii Kji'frs tiir (IniniLili's, im/
'A/./i'///. v.int'Iy of lti'tnhu^ muu ,'ttti>i ,

I '(7
sleep 1,1 liiliiililf-li. 1-, j(iH
^liii;^. III. :jf)
^ln,ln I ,iiili IliiinliU' l.re. ido
.'''iiiill ( iirilfii I luiiilili- U !• 1 71)
MiH'll, M II-.' ..I, 8, I J, ;,.. i)j, I J (,

J)7, J(.4
Siiiitli. I'' , 151. 18H
smllhi.-.'iii-. \.iii. ly .il ll.-'iiliii mil.

(!'/.. '//, -'.J. >

Boroenaii. Bombui, 1 ; t, 163, .1.1, ^7^

-|>.'lll'S, . ills.'U i,'|.u,.,l. I , ,
ll'iW ll;Sllll'.;il|sli(',|, i^^

t.iliii' "f th. I'.iit.-li. lij
S/'h.t ful<! rtii hi'mh. 7,1
■-liir.ul.-.. I I

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