134 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



upper face finer. First recurrent nervure received by the second submar- 

 ginal cell in the middle, second recurrent nervure received by the third 

 submarginal cell near the base. Spiracles of the first segment of the 

 abdomen situated upon tubercles. 



One £ specimen. Plainville, Conn., Aug. 30, 187 1. 



NOTES ON THE HUMBLE BEES. 



BY G. J. BOWLES, MONTREAL, P. Q. 



(Read before the Montreal Branch of the Ent. Soc. of Ontario.) 



Packard places the Hymenoptera at the head of the Class Insecta, on 

 account of the completeness of their transformations and the perfection 

 of their instincts. This is also the position assigned to this Order by 

 Dana. Packard ranks the Bees (Apidae) at the head of the Hymenop- 

 tera, thus placing them at the very summit of the insect creation. Cresson, 

 however, in his " Catalogue of the Described Species of N. A. Hymen- 

 optera," has them a long way down the list, after the Ants, Wasps, etc. 

 Who shall decide when such authorities disagree ? 



I wish to draw attention to the Humble Bees of this part of Canada, 

 giving as far as I can the names of the species found here and some notes 

 on their economy, the latter chiefly taken from Putnam's paper published 

 in 1S63. 



The genus Bombus, says Swainson, appears to be a Northern and 

 chiefly European and American genus ; there are very few inter-tropical 

 species, and very few Oriental. Some of the tropical species, however, 

 are very large, much larger than those found in temperate climates. As 

 regards North America, Cresson, in 1863, enumerated 46 species, of which 

 the greater number are found in the northern part of the continent. I 

 have carefully tabulated his list, and find that the arrangement of their 

 habitats is as follows, beginning at the South : Mexico 6, Southern States 

 3, Middle 7, Western 5, Kansas and Utah 8, California 2, New England 

 8, Canada 7, Hudson Bay 5, Arctic 13, Sitka 3, Greenland 1, unknown 



