EXPERIMENTS IN REARING COLONIES OF BUMBLE- 

 BEES (BREMIO) IN ARTIFICIAL NESTS. 1 



THEODORE H. PRISON. 

 ILLINOIS STATE NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY, URBANA, ILLINOIS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In a detailed study of the life history of the bumblebees and 

 their inquilines and parasites, it is obviously impossible to secure 

 all the desired information from field observations alone. There- 

 fore, various methods of procedure are necessary and some 

 laboratory methods must be used. An account of the methods 

 developed for the rearing of colonies of these social bees during 

 five years of study may seem superfluous, but in view of previous 

 publications, the ever-increasing interest in these insects, and 

 their economic importance, such an account has its practical as 

 well as academic value. 



Until comparatively recent times practically all of our bio- 

 logical knowledge concerning the activities associated with nidifi- 

 cation were the result of the chance discovery of nests, their 

 hasty examination, and more rarely their observation for a 

 limited period of time. To a large extent the classical obser- 

 vations of Reaumur (1742), Huber (1801), Lepeletier (1836), 

 Putnam (1864) and many others were the result of this type of 

 study. It is but natural, then, that the information so accumu- 

 lated should relate for the most part to the size of the colonies, 

 the inquilines and parasites found in the nest when opened, the 

 arrangement of the comb, and various other readily apparent 

 details of the nest economy. Such a method, however, can not 

 be depended upon when a more detailed study of the life history 

 of the individual bees and the development of the colony of one 

 or more species is desired. Furthermore, the fact must not be 



1 Contribution from the Entomological Laboratories of the University of Illinois, 

 No. 1 06. Extract number three from a thesis presented to the Faculty of the 

 Graduate School of the University of Illinois in May, 1923, in partial fulfillment of 

 the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 



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