INSECT COMMUNITIES 281 



humble-bee, from egg to perfect insect, occupies from 

 three to four weeks ; so that the queen is soon surrounded 

 by a little band of four or five workers, the product of the 

 first brood cell, each ready to bear a part in the labours of 

 the day ; while as the summer advances the number of 

 these workers steadily increases, and the colony prospers. 

 The queen continues to lay eggs ; the workers feed the 

 grubs and go abroad in search of honey and pollen. But 

 the social castes of the humble-bee are not rigidly separated 

 as in the case of the wasp. Communities of the latter 

 insect, as we shall see, are made up of one ruling queen 

 and a vast number of workers. Among the humble-bees 

 the fertile females merge, as it were, into the worker 

 caste. Those individuals which are reared in the first- 

 made cells are almost always true workers; but when 

 a nest is established, and its prosperity is assured, numerous 

 small queens are often produced. These live amicably 

 with the original queen, and supplement her egg-laying 

 powers. Moreover, the workers vary among themselves, 

 and their size seems to determine the kind of labour 

 which they are called upon to perform. The larger 

 individuals collect food and building materials, while their 

 smaller sisters usually remain at home, where they act 

 as nurses to the grubs. As autumn approaches a brood 

 of males or "drones" is produced, as well as a number 

 of large queens — the latter being destined to survive the 

 winter and perpetuate the species in the succeeding year. 

 A humble-bee colony is never very numerous. A nest of 

 Bombus terrestris may have a population of from 300 

 to 400 individuals when the drones begin to appear ; but 

 some of the species which make their homes above ground 

 never exceed a score or two of individuals. 



Some humble-bees are known popularly as " carders " 

 because they thatch their habitations with the closely 



