LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 15 



choosing the upper part of a bank or slope facing 

 north or north-west, though generally near trees. 

 In such banks I have sometimes found great 



o 



numbers of queens, chiefly lapidariits, and it is 

 easy to discover them, because in burrowing into 

 the ground each queen throws up a little heap of 

 fine earth, which remains to mark the spot until the 

 rains of autumn wash it away. The burrows are 

 only one to three inches long, and if the bank is 

 steep they run almost horizontally. They are filled 

 with the loose earth that the queen has excavated. 

 The queen occupies a spherical cavity having a 

 diameter of about \\ inch. 



It is evidently damp and not cold that the queens 

 try to avoid. Indeed, the northern aspect shows 

 that they prefer a cold situation, and the reason is 

 easily guessed. The sun never shines on northern 

 banks with sufficient strength to warm the ground, 

 so that the queens do not run the risk of being 

 awakened on a sunny day too early in spring, for 

 the queen humble-bee is very susceptible to a rise in 

 temperature in the spring, although heat in autumn, 

 even should it amount to 8o F., will not rouse her 

 when once she has become torpid. The queen 

 easily takes fright while she is excavating her 

 burrow, and I find that many burrows are begun 

 and not finished. 



The queen always fills her honey-sac with honey 

 before she retires to her hibernacle. This store of 

 liquid food is no doubt essential for the preservation 

 of life, and is especially needed, one would think, 



