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American Hee Journal 



Fig. ;.— Three carpenter bees i. Xylocopa caffra. Cape Colony. 

 Nicaragua. 3. X. conjuncta. Africa. 



2. X. fimbriata 



Three of the diseased colonies gave 

 respectively 305, 326, and 33(i sections. 

 The poorest gave 112 sections. The 

 poorest of the healthy colonies gave 

 (J8 sections, showing that there are 

 worse things tlian foulbrood. In this 

 case I think it was " pure cussed- 

 ness." Number 39 began by killing its 

 own queen the last of May, and killed 

 everything in the line of a queen given 

 to it up to Sept. 1, when it accepted a 

 virgin. I used the politest and best 

 forms of introduction I knew, includ- 

 ing Arthur C. Miller's smoke plan, but 

 all was no use. 



Marengo, 111. 



throughout the world, of which 2000 

 belong to Europe, and an equal num- 

 ber to North America. There are about 

 200 species in England, 400 in Germany, 

 while in the warmer climate of Algeria 

 there are 413. In southern Maine there 

 are not far from 135 species, while 

 Hamilton, 111., the home of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, could probably fur- 

 nish 250 species. The wild bees of the 

 southern States are almost wholly un- 

 known, and the information available 

 in regard to the bee fauna of many 

 northern States is exceedingly scanty. 

 The wild bees are now classified 

 into families, in the same manner as 

 plants, but for the purpose of this 



journal we shall follow an older divis- 

 ion of them into two great series 

 called the long-tongued bees and the 

 short-tongued bees. The latter is the 

 older group, and as flowers with the 

 nectar deeply concealed were gradually 

 developed, the long-tongued bees were 

 evolved /((;•/ A'.';'-" (with equal pace). 



Of our native long-tongued bees no 

 genus is more familiar to every one 

 than the bumblebees. They are some- 

 times called humblebees, but their 

 cheerful boom well deserves the sono- 

 rous term Bombus or bumblebee. The 

 common American bumblebee (Bom- 

 bus americanorum, Fig. 1) has a ton- 

 gue 14 millimeters long, or more than 

 twice as long as that of the honey-bee 

 (6 mm.). The following lines by Em- 

 erson well describe the economy of 

 species : 



" Hot midsummer's petted crone. 

 Sweet to me thy drowsy tone 

 Tells of countless summer hours. 

 Long days and solid banks of flowers. 



Wiser far than human seer, 

 Yellow-breeched philosopher! 



When the fierce northwestern blast 

 Cools sea and land so far and fast. 

 Thou already slumberest deep; 

 Woe and want thou canst outsleep." 



There are many flowers which are 

 adapted to pollination by bumblebees, 

 and are hence called bumblebee flow- 

 ers. This is true ot no other genus of 

 bees. Common bumblebee flowers in 

 gardens are the columbines, larkspurs, 

 monkshoods and snapdragons; while 

 the turtlehead, butter and eggs, gentian 

 and red clover flourish in the mead- 

 ows. I once placed several flower- 

 clusteis of white turtlehead about 4 

 feet in front of a bee-hive; the honey- 

 bees ignored the flowers entirely, but 

 presently the bumblebees found them 

 and one of them visited every flower. 



Bumblebees are social insects during 

 the warmer half of the year, but only 

 the impregnated queens survive the 

 winter and are on the wing in the 

 spring. All of the other wild bees in- 

 digenous to the northern States are 

 solitary insects; each female, as a rule, 

 constructing her own nest and stock- 



Our Wild Bees 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL. 



FEW beekeepers know much about 

 our wild bees, yet they play a most 

 important part in the pollination 

 of both wild and cultivated plants, the 

 pollen and nectar of which our domes- 

 tic bees are compelled to share with 

 them. Our younger beekeepers, both 

 boys and girls, would find it well worth 

 their while to collect and study the 

 wild species of their neighborhood. 

 By exchanging and corresponding with 

 each other this work might be made 

 intensely interesting; and much prac- 

 tical information would be obtained. 

 When Darwin was at Good Success 

 Bay, Terra del Fuego, he wrote home 

 that he thought he could not employ 

 his life better than by adding a little to 

 Natural Science. But it is not neces- 

 sary to go to the antipodes for this 

 purpose; you can find an ample field 

 for investigation near your own home, 

 for the wild bees of this country are 

 fairly well known in only a very few 

 localities. 

 Some 8000 species have been described 



Fio. 3.— Leaf-cutting bees. i. Megachile latimanus; <;. female; /'. male. New Kneland. 

 2. M. vidua, female. New lintland. 3. M. atriceps. female. Cuba. 



