The True Bees 



Bombus fervidus, also called Bombus borealis, is a species 

 which is common in Canada and the northeastern United States 

 with something of a southern and western range and is a fairly 

 typical bumblebee. At the approach of winter the old colonies 

 fail, the workers and the drones, or males, die and only a few 

 fertilized females remain alive. These hide themselves away in 

 protected places, pass the winter in a torpid condition and when 

 spring comes each one starts out to found a new colony. She 

 collects moss or grass and pollen, seeks some depression in the 

 field and begins a waxen cell under the grass or moss. Old 

 nests of field mice are frequently used for this purpose. In this 

 cell, which is stored with honey intermingled with a small 

 quantity of pollen, is laid an egg and the formation of another 

 cell begins at once. Along in July the nest will be found to con- 

 tain a queen with a large number of workers of various sizes, as 

 well as eggs and larvae in all stages of development. Interesting 

 observations upon this species have been made by Mr. F. V. 

 Coville, who, although a famous botanist, ought to have been an 

 entomologist, judging from his study of this insect. The precise 

 duties of the different sized workers, according to this observer, 

 are not evident but in general the larger ones attend to the mend- 

 ing of the covering of the nest and to the bringing in of honey, 

 while the smaller ones for the most part do the inside housework, 

 the wax patching and the nursing of the young. He never saw 

 this nursing, as a matter of fact, done by a large or even a medium- 

 sized bee. The eggs are laid several together in cavities in a 

 mass of wax in which, however, are many pollen grains. The 

 larvae after hatching remain encased in a shell of wax and soon 

 become separated each from the other by a waxen wall. Here 

 they are fed by a mixture of pollen and honey supplied them by 

 a worker. One of the smaller workers, which Coville has called 

 the nurse bees, collects nectar and then pollen, preparing the 

 mixture, and then goes to one of the larvae, which lie in circular 

 form in their chambers, and injects the brownish, fluid mixture 

 through a small opening previously made, usually by another 

 worker. This is greedily eaten by the larvae. Whether the larvae 

 of both females and workers are fed in the same manner and with 

 the same mixture could not be decided, but it is known that in 

 the honey bee the different kind of food influences the size and the 

 function of the bees, a special food being used to develop queens. 



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