112 May, 



continually revising and improving his methods, long after he had found that 

 it could never be made commercially remunerative. In his case, however, the 

 labour taken was by no means " Labour lost," since we owe to it his admirable 

 and well-known monograph " The Humble Bee " (1912). He had also already 

 acq^uired much familiarity with Kentish insects generally, paying chief atten- 

 tion to the bionomics of the Aculeate Hymenoptera, and especially of the 

 Bees (both social and solitary). 



It was at this time (1892) that he produced quite a sensation aiuong the 

 few Hymeuopterists of the day, by circulating among them copies of a reall}" 

 wonderful little booklet, composed, stylographed in imitation of printing, 

 illustrated, and even bound (!), entirely by himself. Small though it was, it 

 contained many quite new observations on the bionomics of our various species 

 of Humble-bee ; and, both in its title, and more or less even in its contents, 

 anticipated the great work, already .illuded to, which was to appear twenty 

 years later, just before its author finally left this country. It is to this little 

 essay that the late E. Saunders chiefly referred when he wrote in his 



" Hymenoptera Aculeata," etc. (p. 360) : " Mr. F. W. L. Sladeu has 



latel}' paid a good deal of attention to the habits of the British Bomhi, and in 

 the remarks which follow I have drawn largely from information very kindly 

 supplied by him." 



Between 1895 and 1912 Sladen not unfrequently contributed notes to this 

 Magazine. All but one dealt with Hymenoptera, and the following at least 

 are of more than temporary interest: — Descriptions, etc. of two Bees new to 

 Britain, Sphecodes rubicundus (Nov. 1895) and Cilissa melanura (Oct. 1897); 

 Bombi in captivity and the Habits of Pdthyrus (Oct. 1899) ; A Scent-producing 

 Organ [viz., the " Canal'' of Nassanofi] in the Abdomen of the Workers of 

 Apis mellijica (Sept. 1902). Here we may note, parenthetically, that Sladen 

 also first discovered and explained — not, however, in Ent. Mo. Mag. but in the 

 " British Bee Journal " (Dec. 14th, 1911) — the true function of another structure 

 in the woi-ker Hive-bee, namely the " auricle " at the base of the hind meta- 

 tar.sus. To the " British Bee Journal " also he communicated many other papers 

 — mostly on Apiculture — one series of which (" Queen-rearing in England ") 

 was republished as a book in 1905, and followed by a 2nd (enlarged) edition in 

 1913. After settling in Canada he published in the '' Canadian Entomologist" 

 several papers of a systematic character, e.g., on certain genera of North 

 American Wild Bees, and the relations of their species to congeners in 

 Europe. 



During his last fifteen years in England (though still continuing to 

 collect, study, and occasionally write on Aculeates other than Hive-bees) he 

 was occupied chietiy with practical Apiculture. In fact, he adopted this as a 

 definite profession, establishing iind managing (practically single-handed) the 

 well-known " Ripple Court Apiary " on his own premises. Here, besides 

 dealing, not unprofitably, in honey, queens, bee-keeping appliances, etc., he^ 

 paid special attention to the production bj' scientific methods of improved 

 races ; arranged exportations of Humble-bees to the Antipodes, and of Hive- 

 bees, specially selected, to many of our more distant Colonies ; competed in 

 Exhibitions, etc., etc. This side of Sladen's activities can only be discussed 

 adequately by an expert in Apiculture, and fortunately this has been done 



