LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 25 



more plastic than beeswax, and is of a brown colour. 

 Hoffer considered that it was produced, like the 

 wax of the honey-bee, from the under side of the 

 abdomen, but I find that it exudes from between 

 the segments on the upper side of the abdomen ; 

 from here it is collected on the brushes of the hind 

 metatarsi (see pages 260-2). How it is conveyed 

 to the mandibles I have never been able to trace, 

 but that it is often dropped on to the comb and 

 afterwards picked up I have proved by placing a 

 grating of wire-cloth under a nest of lapidaruts ; in 

 three days about 150 minute particles of wax had 

 fallen through the grating. 



The eggs of the humble-bee are white and trans- 

 lucent, and shaped like a sausage, but slightly thicker 

 at one end than at the other. They are much 

 larger than the eggs of the honey-bee, their length 

 being 2\ to 4 millimetres (about \ inch). Those of 

 the large underground-dwelling species are the 

 longest, being about three times as long as they are 

 broad ; those of the carder-bees are not only shorter 

 but stouter, their length not exceeding 2\ times 

 their width. 



The queen now sits on her eggs day and night to 

 keep them warm, only leaving them to collect food 

 when necessary. In order to maintain animation 

 and heat through the night and in bad weather when 

 food cannot be obtained, it is necessary for her to 

 lay in a store of honey. She therefore sets to work 

 to construct a large waxen pot to hold the honey. 

 This pot is built in the entrance passage of the nest, 



