:t*ERFFXT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 113 



of tlieif history, concerning which we are now in dark- 

 ness. 



Having- given you some idea, imperfect indeed from 

 the want of materials, of the societies of wasps, I must 

 next draw up for you the best account I can of those of the 

 humhie-bees ; — which form a kind of intermediate link 

 between the wasps and the hive-bees, collecting honey 

 indeed and making wax, but constructing their combs 

 and cells without tlie geometric precision of the latter, 

 and of a more rude and rustic kind of architecture ; 

 and distinguished from both, though they approach 

 nearer to the bees, by the extreme hairiness of their 

 bodies. 



The population of a humble-bees nest may be di- 

 vided into four orders of individuals : the large females ; 

 the small females ; the males ; and the workers. 



The large females, like the female wasps, are the 

 original founders of their republics. They are often 

 so large, that by the side of the small ones or the work- 

 ers, which in every other respect they exactly resemble, 

 they look like giants opposed to pygmies. They are 

 excluded from the pupa in the autumn ; and pair, in that 

 season, with males produced from the eggs of the small 

 females. They pass the winter under ground, and, as 

 appears from an observation of M. P. Huber, in a par- 

 ticular apartment, separate from the nest, and ren- 

 dered warm by a carpeting of moss and grass, but with- 

 out any supply of food. Early in the spring, (for they 

 make their first appearance as soon as the catkins of 

 the sallows and willows are in flower,) like the female 

 wasps, they lay the foundations of a new colony with- 



voL. n. 1 



