UYMENOPTERA. 673 



without any of the severe disciplining and exact methods 

 of her cousin, the honey-bee. 



With the bumblebees the queens are larger than either 

 the workers or the males, and are the only ones that live 

 through the winter. In early spring we often see one of 

 these great queens flying low, and inspecting our meadows 

 and pastures for a building-place. She chooses some de- 

 serted mouse-nest in the meadow, and places within it a ball 

 of pollen, upon which she lays some eggs. As soon as the 

 larvae hatch they eat into the pollen-mass in all directions, 

 and when full grown make for themselves silken cocoons, 

 and change to pupae. These cocoons the old bees strengthen 

 with wax, and after the young bees vacate them they are 

 used as storing cells for honey. This explains the irregu- 

 larity of the bumblebee-comb. The first broods of the sea- 

 son are workers, and relieve the queen of all duties except 

 laying the eggs. Later in the summer males and females 

 appear, and it can be said to the credit of the bumblebee 

 queens that they are not jealous, but allow the young queens 

 to live with them in the nest. In the autumn the colony 

 breaks up, and all of the bees, except the young queens, perish. 

 These crawl away into some protected place and pass the 

 winter. In the spring each queen that has survived the 

 winter founds a new colony, performing, until a brood of 

 workers has been developed, both the duties of queen and 

 of worker. 



The Honey-bee, Apis mellifica (A'pis mel-lif'i-ca). — Neat 

 rows of hives on a sunny slope, with an orchard on one side 

 and wide-stretching meadows on the other, the busy hum 

 of comers and goers of this city of cities, the odor of honey 

 weighing down every passing breeze — these constitute 

 one of the most home-like possessions of the ideal country- 

 home. 



The honey-bee, through its useful products, has been 

 known and cared for by man for centuries. Philosophers 

 have written about it, poets have sung its praises, and nat< 

 44 



