358 THE INSECT WORLD. 



The humble bees are known by their great size, their short, robust 

 body, encircled by bands of very bright colours, and by the noise 

 they make in flying. Their hind legs are armed with two spurs. The 

 females and the workers have the same organisation for plundering 

 flowers as the bees have : they have similar trunks, and their legs are 

 fitted with brushes and baskets for gathering 

 pollen. The males, like the males of hive 

 bees, have no sting. The greater number 

 have their dwelling-places underground ; others 

 make their nests on the surface of the soil, 

 in the cracks of walls, in heaps of stones, 

 &c. The former establish themselves in 

 cavities situated as far as half a yard under- 

 ground, and approached by a long narrow 

 Fig- 333. Male Humble Bee gallery. It is almost always a solitary female 

 who has been the architect of the nest. She 



cleans out the cavity she has chosen, makes it as smooth as possible, 

 and lines it with leaves and moss, to embellish the subterranean 

 house in which she is to pass nearly all her existence. 



The Moss Humble Bee (Bombns muscorum), called also the Carding 

 JBee, chooses an excavation of very little depth in which to make its 

 nest, or else itself undertakes the hollowing out of a hole in the ground. 

 It covers this with a dome of moss or dry herbs. But it does not fly 

 when transporting the moss, it drags it along the ground, with its back 

 turned towards the nest. Having seized a packet of the moss, it sets 

 to work to draw out the bits with its mandibles, and then pushing them 

 under its body, throws them in the direction of the nest by a sort of 

 kick from its hind legs. Sometimes, towards the end of the season, 

 many humble bees are to be seen working in line. The first seizes 

 the moss, and after having carded it, passes it under its body, and 

 throws it to the second, which throws it on to the third, and so on, 

 up to the nest. When the materials are ready, the insect makes use 

 of them to manufacture a sort of hemispherical lid, or covering, 

 resembling felt, which shuts the nest in, and is lined with wax. If 

 you lift up this covering, or small dome, .which it is not dangerous to 

 do, for humble bees are not very aggressive, you find beneath it a 

 nest composed of a coarse comb. 



The cells which compose the nest, and which are to receive the 

 larvae of the insect, are of an oval shape, and of a pale yellow or even 

 of a blackish colour. Fig. 334 represents these cells. The wax of 

 which they are composed has none of the qualities of that of hive 

 bees, but is soft, sticky, and brownish. 



