178 THE HUMBLE-BEE vill 
contained ‘almost always 300 to 400 individuals ; 
but at the time of greatest prosperity far over 400. 
They flew like bees in and out; frequently they 
thronged into the flight-hole exactly like honey- 
bees, especially before rain, when the first drops 
fell. They possessed an extraordinarily large 
amount of honey ; frequently more than 100 cocoons 
and honey-pots were filled with it.” 
In Corsica the queen of vuderatus, like that of 
the Corsican ¢errestris, has no yellow bands and 
has the tail red; the worker resembles the queen, 
except that the red tail is lighter, but the male 
shows traces of the yellow bands and his tail is 
orange or white. This is the variety corszcus. 
The males of vuderatus select certain trees, and, 
following one another from tree to tree, hover round 
the foliage at a considerable height from the ground, 
whereas the males of hortorum fly close to the ground, 
as explained on page 13. 
Fully-developed vuderatus queens are the largest 
of the British Bomdz, although large examples of 
latretllellus, distinguendus, and terrestris are almost 
equal to them. The tongue of vuderatus is about 
as long as that of ortorum, and, like hortorum, 
ruderatus visits the longest-tubed flowers. Its 
especial favourites are the white dead-nettle, hore- 
hound, and red clover. 
