SOLITARY AND SOCIAL BEES 



HUMBLE BEES 



The next social group, the humble bees, are much more 

 familiar and have been much more studied. Apart from the 

 cuckoo humble bees, social parasites which will be mentioned 

 in chapter 5, nineteen species have been seen in Great 

 Britain and thirteen of these are more or less common in the 

 southern part of the country. The group, however, is a very- 

 large one, with two hundred to three hundred species, found 

 all over Eurasia to Japan and Sumatra ; all over North and 

 South America and in Africa north of the Sahara. Thus, while 

 it is especially well represented in temperate regions, it is also 

 found in much of the tropics. The solitary bees most like 

 humble bees are now found in South America, and it may 

 have been here that the group originally developed. 



Some people imagine that a humble bee does not sting like 

 the honey bee. This is unfortunately untrue, but it will very 

 rarely sting unless roughly handled or unless the nest is 

 disturbed. As in the wasps, the larger the nest the more 

 fiercely is it defended. In temperate climates the life-cycle is 

 very like that of the wasp. Males and females are produced in 

 the summer or autumn, but only the fertilised females survive 

 the winter. In the spring the queens feed on flowers of sallow 

 and other early flowering plants, and then begin searching for 

 a nesting-site. Some species nest under grass-tussocks on 

 the surface of the ground, others in holes underground. In 

 both types most nests are constructed in an abandoned mouse 

 or vole nest. The collection of pieces of grass and dead leaves 

 made by the mouse provides the essential protection and 

 insulation for the early stages. More grass or moss may 

 be piled up later. 



Suitable sites of this type are often not very numerous, 

 and this has two very important consequences. First, there 



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