44 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



ii 



the larvae are full grown the pollen-pockets are 

 destroyed. 



When the usual receptacles for pollen employed 

 by a particular species are not available, it may 

 adopt those employed by others. Thus in a strong 

 nest of B. agroi'um, one of the pocket-making 

 species that I had under observation in 1910, 

 the workers, during a period when there were no 

 growing larvae and consequently no pockets for 

 pollen, dropped all the pollen they brought home into 

 a special waxen cell they had constructed, like ter- 

 restris, on the top of some cocoons. Also a colony 

 of B. hortorum, another pocket-maker, being in an 

 advanced stage, and having no growing larvae, placed 

 pollen in the cocoons vacated by the young queens, 

 but only lined the interior of the cocoons with it. 



In general, humble-bees, like honey-bees, prefer 

 to deposit the pollen in cells among the brood, and 

 the honey in cells farther off. 



It will be understood that the comb expands in 

 an upward and lateral direction. At the bottom 

 of the nest are the vacated cocoons, now filled with 

 honey ; lightly resting on these, with narrow gang- 

 ways for the bees in every direction between them, 

 are the clusters of cocoons containing pupae and full- 

 fed larvae. Amongst and above these are the bags 

 of wax of various sizes containing larvae in different 

 stages of growth. Finally, here and there, on the 

 clusters of cocoons containing the pupae and larvae 

 are the little sealed waxen cells containing eggs. 

 No brood is therefore visible. 



