The Nest of the Carder Bee. 121 



took off a portion of the top and a part of the comb, and in two 

 hours it was entirely repaired as far as the exterior was 

 concerned. I calculated that the colony contained about 40 

 humble bees. At the end of July, I was obliged to give up the 

 watching process during the meeting of the International 

 Medical Congress, and whilst away attending to my duties at 

 the British Medical Association, at Ryde. During my absence 

 the grass had grown so much that, on my return I had 

 difficulty in finding the nest. It was quite covered up by long 

 grass, and the shape was somewhat destroyed. As the 

 season was very wet for some time after my return I was 

 unable to pay attention to my friends, but in the first week of 

 September I removed what remained of the dome and found 

 about a dozen bees very heavy and listless. They buzzed 

 slightly but were unable to fly, and some dead bees were in the 

 nest. The mossy dome, unlike the dome of a month before, 

 was no longer waterproof. It was sodden through, and the 

 nest itself in a process of rapid decay. The underneath part 

 was more soaked than the neighbouring ground, and what 

 interested me most was the number of enemies who had 

 attacked the nest on all sides ; slugs, and beetles, and weevils. 

 I tried carefully to excavate it, but an immense number of 

 earth worms had assaulted it from below. They surrounded 

 the comb at the part underneath. Not less than one hundred 

 were there. They put me very much in mind of the snakes 

 upon the head of Medusa. They were of all sizes, from one 

 inch to six inches in length, and a large part of the comb was 

 already destroyed. I rescued the portion which I show you. 

 There were no eggs in the cells, and one is occupied by a dead 

 bee. Whether my examination of the dome before the wet 

 season had set in, had destroyed its power to keep out the rain,. 

 or not, I don't know. I think possibly that might have been 

 the case, and that the rain finding entrance, had damaged the 

 colony so that the worms were able to effect a breach below, 

 and destroyed the work before its time. I think also that the 

 queen (if there be a queen) had been attacked and the larva of 

 royal blood had been destroyed at an early stage of the 

 proceedings, for I could not find it there. At any rate some- 

 thing in this case had arisen to lead to the attack of the worms 

 upon the nest. It is reasonable to suppose that such a result 

 does not usually follow, otherwise the Bombus Muscorum or 

 Carder Bee would soon be extinct. There must be a means of 

 defence against worms in a general way, yet this colony was on 

 the point of utter destruction when I completed that process 

 by removing it altogether. I was unable at any time to find 

 honey in the nest, though we may assume that some of the 

 cells had been so occupied. There are a few remaining as 



