THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. 215 



time ; but with the exception of the queen, no bee 

 lives to be a yeax* old. 



The bumblebee or humblebee (Jfombw)* is even 

 more commonly a searcher after honey on the road- 

 side than the honeybee. It is scarcely possible to 

 see a patch of red clover, or a little clump of 

 the pretty blue Jtrunella vulyaris at our feet, with- 

 out some one of the blossoms holding a golden- 

 hipped, smoky-winged, clumsy visitor, one of the 

 very best of flower friends because the most useful 

 pollen disseminator in the world. The humblebee is 

 so called because it builds its 

 nest on the ground beside the 

 grasses, or under stones. The 

 colonies of bumblebees are small 

 compared with those of the The Queen Bumblebeo 

 honeybees ; sometimes there are (Bomim PennsyUa- 



nicum). 



as many as three hundred in a 

 family, but frequently not more than fifty or sixty. 

 In each nest there are four kinds of bees the 

 queens, small females, males, and workers. In au- 

 tumn all except the queens die ; these remain dor- 

 mant in the deep seclusion of some hole near the 

 nest until the warmth of returning spring awakens 

 them from their winter lethargy, and prompts them 



* There are about forty different species. 



