HYMENOPTERA. — APIDZE. 981 
“a 
three hundred. They construct their dwellings under-ground in mea- 
dows, pastures, or hedge-rows, generally employing moss for this 
purpose. Their union, however, lasts only till the cold weather kills 
the great mass of the inhabitants, a few impregnated females alone 
surviving to become the foundresses of fresh colonies at the commence- 
ment of the following spring. ‘The neuters are late in their appear- 
ance, being produced from eggs deposited by these foundress bees ; 
and it is not until autumn that the males appear. Unlike the hive 
bee, the females take their share in the labours of the community, 
and they are accordingly furnished with two peculiar organs possessed 
by the neuters, of which the queen of the hive is destitute, although 
the neuters of the latter insect possess them ; namely, the dense fringe 
of hairs surrounding the pollen-plate of the posterior tibiae, and the 
dilated base of the first tarsal joint. The economy of the humble bee 
also, unlike that of the hive, admits of the presence of numerous 
females in the same nest. The species of Bombus are very difficult 
to determine, from the colours of the hairs being very liable to fade. 
It is essential, therefore, to trace the insects from their first leaving 
the nest. M. Audouin has proved that the sexual organs of the males 
of closely allied species present very characteristic specific distinc- 
tions. (Ann. Genér. Sci. Physiq. tom. vili. p. 285.) 
The patient affection of the females in the construction of the nest 
and cells, and deposition of eggs ; the subsequent cares of the workers 
for insuring a constant supply of food to the young brood, and for 
securing its escape from its cell when arrived at the perfect state; the 
construction of the nests and cells; the different kinds of individuals, 
and their various duties at different periods of the year; the dis- 
tinction between the females and neuters, and between the two kinds 
of the former, some of which are of a smaller size than the foundress 
bees, and produce only male eggs, — (between these small females and 
the later produced larger ones great jealousy exists: it is the latter 
which, after impregnation, survive the winter, and deposit their eggs in 
the following spring, —) these, together with numerous other interest- 
ing peculiarities in the history of these insects, are treated upon by 
the various authors cited above, as well as by St. Fargeau, and Kirby 
and Spence, in the first and second volumes of their JZntroduction. 
With respect to the Apathi, Psithyri, or Pseudo-Bombi, as the para- 
sitic Bombi have been named, it is to be observed that, inasmuch as 
in the hive bee we find those individuals which take no share in the 
