250 THE’ HUMBLE-BEE x 
The comb consisted of :— 
(1) The empty cocoons that had contained the 
first batch of workers. 
(2) Three large clusters of later worker cocoons, 
all empty except four cocoons in one cluster which, 
by their darkened appearance, showed that their 
occupants were about to emerge. 
(3) Four large clusters of vupestrzs cocoons, none 
yet hatched. The oldest cluster contained 21 males 
and 5 females; the second, 21 males and 6 females ; 
the third, 18 males and 5 females; the youngest, 10 
males and 9 females. 
(4) Three lumps of half-fed and nearly full-fed 
larve. Three lumps of smaller larvae. Three cells 
of eggs; one of these was opened, and was found 
to contain 29 rupestris eggs. 
The Pszthyrus queen was nowhere to be seen, 
but suspecting she had hidden herself in a side hole, 
I left a lump of cocoons in the cavity to attract her, 
and returning a quarter of an hour later found her 
on this. 
To strengthen the nest I added brood and 
workers from a queenless /afzdarzus nest. 
During the next few days I watched the nest 
closely. The rupestvis queen was most energetic, 
and day and night kept running hurriedly over the 
comb in all directions, uttering a short mournful cry 
every minute or two; the sound was like that 
emitted by a bee when it is squeezed, and lasted 
about a second ; while it was being made the wings 
were seen to vibrate. Her chief occupation seemed 
