ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE LIFE HISTORY OF 

 BOMBUS AURICOMUS ROBT. 



Theodore H. Prison, Champaign, Illinois. 



During the summer of 1917 the writer was enabled to make 

 some additional observations on the life-history of Bomhus 

 auricomus Robt., which resulted in the verification of several 

 statements already pubhshed in a preceding article of his 

 ('17), and in the addition of new facts of interest. 



I. Spring Flight of the Queens. 



The queens of Bombus auricomus in this vicinity began to 

 fly in the spring of 1917 about the twelfth of May, and con- 

 tinued flying until about the first of July. The queen during 

 the first few days of the spring flight flies rather near the ground, 

 stopping now and then to sip the nectar from some attractive 

 flower. Later this leisurely flight settles into an industrious 

 search for a nesting site, thS duration of the search depending 

 entirely upon how soon the queen finds a favorable location. 

 After a nesting site is once selected the queen busies herself 

 mainly with collecting pollen in which to lay the eggs for her 

 future brood. 



From this time on, the flights of the queen from the nest 

 gradually decrease in number, until at last there comes a time 

 when sufficient workers have been produced to supply the 

 necessary pollen and honey, and the queen seldom if ever leaves 

 the nest. It is safe to say that nearly all the queens of this 

 species in this vicinity in a normal season have started their 

 nests by the first or second week in June. 



II. Methods Used in Starting a Colony by Confining 



THE Queens. 



For several years I have tried confining bumblebee queens 

 in separate artificial nests and feeding them, in the hope of 

 getting the queens to start colonies, but this method has always 

 failed. Sometimes a queen would seem to take an interest 

 in the nest, pat the grass down about the pollen lump, and get 

 very excited when disturbed, but always finally abandoned the 

 nest. This season, however, I decided to try the placing of 



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