362 APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY 



from which workers emerge. These are undeveloped females, smaller 

 than the queen, and they now take up the work of the colony, strengthen- 

 ing the cocoons with wax and using them to store honey in. The colony 

 increases in numbers and late in the season males (drones) and females 

 (queens) are also produced and live together until the approach of cold 

 weather, when all but the young queens die, these going to protected places 

 to pass the winter. 



The value of the bumblebees to man is apparently based upon the 

 fact that in these insects the middle part of the hinder lip (tongue) 

 is longer than in most of the other bees, and that therefore they visit and 



cross pollenize flowers having a 

 nectary so long that the nectar in it, 

 from which honey is made, cannot 

 be reached by the other species, 

 which accordingly do not visit such 

 flowers. One such plant is the com- 

 mon red clover which in the United 

 States is enabled to produce seed, 

 chiefly as a result of the visits of 



Fig. 383. — Queen Bumblebee {Bom- bumblebees, which makes these 



?Sn:S.T^'"''''"' ^^' ^■^' "'"^"'''^ ''''■ insects important aids to those who 



raise clover seed. 



Insects so closely resembling bumblebees that it has incorrectly 

 been said that the latter cannot distinguish them from themselves, are 

 often found in bumble bee nests, living there as inquilines. The females 

 of these inquilines (genus Psithyrus) however, have no structures on 

 their hind tarsi for carrying pollen. In these inquilines there is no worker 

 caste. The eggs are laid in the bumblebee cells and on hatching the 

 young are fed by the bumblebee workers like their own, and the adults 

 go in and out of the nest without molestation. Whether they have some 

 function beneficial to the insects with which they live and which provide 

 for them is as yet unknown. 



The Honey Bee {Apis mellifera L. ). — There are a number of species 

 of honey bees in different parts of the world, but in the United States 

 our knowledge and experience with these insects is limited to the above 

 named kind, often called also, the Hive Bee. 



This insect is a native of Europe but was introduced into America 

 centuries ago. In many instances, colonies have escaped from domesti- 

 cation and wild honey bees are abundant as a result. There are several 

 races of the Honey Bee, the most common one, at least wild, being the 

 Black or German bee, as this was the first race to be brought to this 

 country. The German bee has a black abdomen; is not a particularly 

 good honey producer and has a decidedly bad temper, besitdes being less 

 able to protect itself from some of the insects such as the bee moth, which 



