May, '07] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



The Bumblebees of Southern Maine. 



By JOHN H. LOVELL, Waldoboro, Maine. 

 The bumblebees of New England have received very little 

 attention since the publication of the late Dr. Packard's paper 

 in tlie Proceedings of the Essex Institute, in 1864. In this 

 contribution he lists the following species as found in Maine: 

 B. fcri'idns, pennsylvanicus, tcrricola, rir^inicns, I'a^ans and 

 tcniarins, the last on the authority of Cresson. Of the species 

 of Psithyrns he mentions collecting several female specimens of 

 P. as/itoiiii at Brunswick, Maine. It is the object of the pres- 

 ent paper to enumerate the species taken in southern Maine, 

 at Waldoboro, and to give a few of the more important flower- 

 records. The earliest date in spring on which females of 

 Boinbns have been observed is April 3Oth, when B. tcrricola 

 and B. tcniariits have been found visiting the aments of Sali.r 

 discolor. During the autumn of the current year (1906) I 

 made a special effort to determine the latest date any of the 

 species continued on the wing. On September i8th, a mild, 

 clear day, I found no bumblebees on the asters and goldenrods, 

 though there were many honeybees at work on the latter. In 

 a field of red clover (Trifoliuin pratcnsc}, however, specimens 

 of B. consiinilis. fcrridus and borcalis were still fairly common. 

 Very likely they continued to fly for a few days longer, but 

 on the night of September 24th there was a hard frost, killing 

 all tender garden plants and turning black nearly all of the 

 clover heads. The following day was clear, warm and calm 

 and butterflies were still flitting about over the clover field, but 

 no bumblebees were to be seen. 



Apis mellifera L. 



1/58. Apis niclUfcra L., Syst. Nat. (loth ed.), p. 576. 

 1761, Apis incllifica L., Faun. Suec, p. 421. 



Dalla Torre in his catalogue, following the law of priority, 

 has given preference to the earlier name mellifera, which has 

 also been adopted in the publications of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. The question of the nomenclature of the 

 honeybee has been fully discussed by Mr. Frank Bent. HI in 

 Proc. Km. Soc. Wash., 6, 71, 1904. "Why Linn.-eus chose to 

 change the name is not apparent," but it is suggested by Mr. 



