FIELD BOOK OF INSECTS. 



BOMBID.E 



The burly Bumble-bees are so conspicuous, abundant, 

 and appealing, that I am giving them considerable space. 

 The first discoidal cell is not as long or scarcely longer 

 than the marginal, which is pointed at the tip and extends 

 far beyond the apex of the third submarginal cell; the 

 stigma is not well developed; second submarginal cell is 

 rather linger than either the first or third, and strongly 

 produced at the low r er basal corner. Psithyrus is a lazy 

 genus that lives with its relatives. There are no workers, 

 the " queen " living in a Bombus nest and letting the Bombus 

 workers bring up its young. Bombus is a social bee; that 

 is, a family nest is made and the older daughters do not 

 mate but give their attention to caring for the nest and 

 feeding their younger brothers and sisters. The best book 

 on their biology is by Sladen, The Humble-bee, its life- 

 history and how to domesticate it. As might be guessed by 

 the common name he uses, it is about English species, 

 but then we know very little about our own. 



The fertilized female ("queen") passes the winter in 

 some snug retreat and early in spring starts her nest, it 

 may be in a deserted field-mouse's burro W T . After arrang- 

 ing dried grass and the like to form the nest, she collects 

 pollen and makes a pile of it, moistened with honey, on the 

 floor of the nest. She also makes a honey-pot of wax 

 near the doorway and fills it with rather liquid honey. 

 Eggs are laid on the pollen-mass, covered over with wax, 

 and more or less incubated by the queen, especially during 

 inclement weather. At such times she feeds out of the 

 honey pot. When the larvae hatch, they feed on the pollen 

 mass under the waxen coverlet, which the mother pierces 

 from time to time in order to give them special meals of 

 honey and pollen, chewed up together. When the larvae 

 have attained full size (it takes ten days or two weeks), 

 each spins a thin, papery, but tough, oval cocoon and 

 pupates, the queen brooding on the cocoons and sipping 

 from her honey-pot. In a week or two the first workers 

 emerge and take up the household duties. Workers 

 are females but smaller than queens; males and queens 

 are not born until late in the season. 



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