: LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 55 
exhausted, the queen grows torpid, as she has done 
many a time before in the early part of her career ; 
but on this occasion, her life-work finished, there is 
no awakening. 
Thus the life-history of the queen humble-bee is 
completed. It only remains to describe a slight, but 
nevertheless very interesting modification of it that 
sometimes takes place. 
Many of the later appearing queens of BL. lapzda- 
reus and terrestris, two of the most abundant species 
in England, do not take the trouble to start nests of 
their own, but finding a nest already occupied by a 
queen of their own species attach themselves to it. 
The foundress of the nest at first ignores the stranger, 
who takes care to keep out of her way as much as 
possible. Aftera short while, however, the intruder 
grows bolder, and begins to pay close attention to 
the brood. Jealousy then arises, and a mortal duel 
is the result. The two queens seize and endeavour 
to sting one another in the most ferocious and 
desperate manner, rolling over, locked in a deadly 
embrace. One of them succeeds, usually within a 
few seconds, in piercing the other, the sting in most 
cases penetrating between two of the segments of 
the abdomen. Instantly the sting of the wounded 
queen becomes paralysed, and she relaxes her 
grip of the victor. Then she grows cold and 
lethargic, and sometimes at once, sometimes an 
hour or two later, she dies. The foundress is gen- 
erally the conqueror, as she deserves to be, but this 
