v SOCIAL HOMES 161 



moss-dome being built, she collects quantities of 

 pollen and honey, and, when the hoarded mass is 

 sufficient for a beginning, proceeds therein to deposit 

 some eggs. In a few days the larvae are hatched, 

 and immediately set to work to eat the food on which 

 they are cradled. Soon they become full-fed, and 

 spin their cocoons, and rapidly undergoing their 

 transformations they gnaw off the tops of their cells 

 and shortly emerge as perfect insects. Invariably the 

 first batch of offspring are workers, who aid the 

 queen in forming the colony. On them devolves the 

 enlargement of the nest, and they assist in the up- 

 bringing of their juniors in the home. Young males 

 and females do not appear until the season has 

 considerably advanced. 



B. lapidarius, " the red-hipped humble " of Shake- 

 speare, one of the most abundant of British Bombi, 

 has a preference for making its nests beneath stones. 

 Under compulsion of untoward circumstances, it 

 forms residences in the earth, like the common 

 Humble Bee. The burrows of B. terrestris are often 

 of great depth ; no moss cover is manufactured, but 

 the roof is lined with layers of wax. In internal 

 construction these nests do not differ from the nest 

 of B. muscorum. As a rule deep burrowers have a 

 population twice as numerous as the more surface- 

 building Carders. The latter are greatly influenced 

 by the weather, their numbers being much diminished 

 by a wet unfavourable season, but, speaking generally, 

 an autumn company seldom exceeds a hundred all 

 told. Of all the Bombi the common Humble Bee is 

 the most prolific, and its homes contain more indi- 



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