214 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [July, '22 



Further Biological and Systematic Notes Concerning 



Bremus kincaidii Ckll. and Other Closely Related 



Species (Hym., Bombidae). 



By THEODORE H. PRISON, Urbana, Illinois. 



In a recent article on the Hymenopterous Insects of the 

 Family Brcmidac from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, published 

 in Volume XII, Number 14, Fourth Series, Proceedings of 

 the California Academy of Sciences, I list a queen and a 

 worker of Brcmns (Bonibus) kincaidii (Ckll.) from St. Paul 

 Island. Because of the rareness of this species in collections 

 and our lack of biological data concerning the same, it seems 

 advisable to record in addition five adults and two pupae. These 

 specimens were sent me for study too late for the data to be 

 included in the article just cited. Two of the five adults are 

 queens, two are workers and one is a male, all collected on St. 

 Paul Island on August 10, 1920, by Dr. G. Dallas Hanna. The 

 two queen pupae were collected on the same date and at the 

 same locality as the adults. 



The presence O'f the male and two queen pupae, in the lot 

 of bumblebees last received from the Pribilof Islands, enables 

 me to extend somewhat my previous biological remarks about 

 this species. One of the queens collected on August 10 is in 

 perfect condition, indicating that she was produced the same 

 season as collected. That August 10 is not too early a date 

 at which to expect the new queens of this species is evidenced 

 by the fact that the two queen pupae taken on this date are 

 in an advanced stage of development, and further that a male 

 was captured at the same time. There is every reason to 

 believe that in the far northern latitudes, as well as in the 

 more temperate regions of North America, the males do not 

 hibernate during the winter as do the impregnated queens. 

 The time of appearance of the sexes is usually well correlated, 

 though it is true the males often show a tendency to appear in 

 advance of the new queens. The early production of males 

 and queens and the formation of small-sized colonies were noted 

 in my paper as phenomena to be expected in the life-histories 

 of bumblebees, which inhabit far northern latitudes. Friese, 

 in Fauna Arctica, 1902, V. 2, p. 490, has advanced the idea 



