H U M B L E - B E E. 



7b7 



cocoons thus become untenanted, they are not allowed 

 to remain useless, but are said to be employed by the 

 bees to hold honey and pollen, the tops being pro- 

 vided with a rirn of wax, for which service they are 

 well adapted, their form now being that of an egg 

 with one end broken off. Latreille, however, is in- 

 clined to doubt this fact, because these cocoons are 

 of a silken nature, and. are asserted by some authors 

 to have the aperture by which the bees have escaped 

 at the bottom end. But we have seen that the latter 

 circumstance is at least refuted by some authors, and 

 the different manner in which these breeding cells 

 are transformed into honey reservoirs has been dis- 

 tinctly noticed ; thus some give them an internal coat 

 of wax, which would remove Latreille's other objec- 

 tion, whilst others add at the top of the breeding cell 

 funnel-shaped tubes of wax, whilst others content 

 themselves with merely giving the broken margin a 

 waxen rim. But what appears more strongly to 

 prove that the bees prefer making use of cells thus 

 already at hand, and which require but little pains 

 to render them useful, than to take the trouble 

 of making fresh cells, is the curious fact that they 

 contrive, out of four of such breeding cells, to construct 

 five honey reservoirs in this manner : having built 

 waxen tubes to four adjoining cells, and joined the 

 sides of such tubes to each other, an acute quadran- 

 gular space is left in the middle, and this space by 

 having a slight coating of wax given to it is easily 

 transformed into a honey reservoir. Cells, however, 

 thus converted are only found in the months of May 

 and June, in the middle of the lower layer of cells 

 from which the early born neuters are produced ; and 

 this is another reason why we are induced to believe 

 this fact of conversion contrary to the opinion of 

 Latreille, since it is evident, from the paucity of inha- 

 bitants and the quantity of duty which must at this 

 period devolve upon each, that they would resort to 

 all possible expedients to save labour ; and this ena- 

 bles us to account for another circumstance in the 

 history of these insects which has been turned to 

 their disadvantage, but which we cannot help think- 

 ing tells the other way. Naturalists have held up 

 the hive bee as exhibiting the perfection of insect 

 instinct, and certainly the inspection of a hive-bee's 

 <*.omb would lead to this conclusion. But this is the 

 work of a perennial association never dissolved, and 

 each constantly employed in perfecting the contents 

 of the hive, whilst the case is quite different with the 

 humble-bee ; the interior of its nest is all irregularity, 

 and its young, instead of being separately cradled in a 

 waxen cell, are at first herded together in a general cell. 

 The nest indeed is as ingeniously constructed with its 

 dome of wax and elegant covering of moss as the 

 nest of the bee, although here the community is an- 

 nually dissolved, and the structure, which we have 

 described, the work of a solitary female, endowed, 

 however, with a far more extensive instinct than the 

 inhabitants of the hive of which the various duties are 

 performed by various sets of individuals selected for 

 such particular purposes. 



Previous to the completion of the inner coat of 

 wax, the upper portion of the dome has been observed 

 to be opened, on a fine sun-shiny day, " to the extent 

 of an inch, in order, probably, to forward the hatching 

 of the eggs in the interior, but on the approach of 

 night, this was carefully covered in again. It was 

 remarkable that the opening which we have just men- 

 tioned was never used by the bees for either their 



entrance or exit from the nest, though they were all at 

 work here, and of course would havefound it the readiest 

 and easiest passage. But they invariably made their 

 exit and their entrance through the covert-way or 

 gallery which opens at the bottom of the nest, and in 

 some nests is about a foot long and half an inch wide. 

 This is, no doubt, intended for concealment from 

 field-mice, pole-cats, wasps, and other depredators." 

 Insect Architecture, page 66. 



The parent Bombus, having thus founded the nest, 

 formed a certain number of cells, and deposited her 

 eggs therein, and seen the birth of some of her 

 offspring, dies. The eggs first deposited produce 

 only neuters, which assist their mother in her labours, 

 but the female afterwards deposits male and female 

 eggs. The females produced from these eggs attain a 

 size larger than the workers, although smaller than 

 the parent. Like the neuters they join in the com- 

 mon works of the nest ; and like their parent becomo 

 fruitful, by impregnation by the males, *born at the 

 same time as themselves, which are also smaller than 

 those males produced at the end of the summer. It 

 may be asked, whether the development of these 

 females is attributable to peculiar food, as is the case 

 with the royal jelly of the queen bees ; but this 

 question, although analogy induces us to answer it in 

 the affirmative, owing to the difficulties of observation 

 of the internal economy of the nests of the Bombits 

 is at present undecided, notwithstanding the investi- 

 gations of various observers ; as the humble-bees, 

 unlike the hive-bees, refuse to remain in experimenting 

 boxes or glass cages prepared for their reception, but 

 return to their own quarters, so that we are obliged 

 in making a consecutive series of observations to have 

 recourse to the opening, from time to time, of natural 

 nests, a proceeding of danger, owing to the infuriation 

 and powerful stings of the insects. 



The community now increases in proportion to 

 the number of young, middle-sized females ; the 

 number of males rapidly augmenting, leading to the 

 supposition that the former only gave birth to these 

 individuals ; but at the end of August, several females, 

 varying in number from three to eight, according to 

 St. Fargeau, are produced, which are destined to 

 survive the winter after impregnation, and become 

 the respective foundresses of fresh communities. 

 The males which are their partners are also of larger 

 size than their elder brethren, being born at the same 

 time as the larger females. 



The tongue of the humble-bee is organised for 

 the gathering of honey, in the same way as that of 

 the hive-bee, with this difference, that in the former 

 it is furnished, near the tip, with a great number of 

 long hairs, forming a brush, enabling the insect to 

 collect a much greater quantity of honey at a time. 

 On arriving at a flower, the bee unfolds its proboscis, in 

 the manner which we have described in our article BEE ; 

 and removes with the elongated lobes of its maxilla3, 

 and its labial palpi, the petals and stamens, so as to 

 enable it to insert its tongue into the nectary without 

 obstruction ; the nectar, thus gathered, ascends by 

 the O3sophagus into the stomach, and is then purified. 



It some times, however, happens, that the bee 

 selects a flower having a longer tube than its own 



*Some authors assert that the young small females are born 

 long before the smaller males, and yet deposit eggs which pro- 

 duce only males, from which it would appear, as Huber asserts, 

 that, as iu the Aphides, a single impregnation is sufficient for 

 more than a single generation. 



DDD2 



