LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 45 



The nest material is pushed out to make room 

 for the growing comb, and there is always a space 

 for the passage of the bees between it and the top 

 of the comb. Over this space, and lining the inside 

 of the nest material, a ceiling of wax is generally 

 made in populous nests, the wax being worked into 

 a thin sheet as in the coverings of the larvae and 

 the walls of the honey-pots. Provided there is 

 room for it, this waxen canopy is always found com- 

 pletely enveloping the top of the comb in populous 

 colonies of B. lapidarins, an underground-dwelling 

 species that produces more wax than any other. 

 Populous colonies of the underground species terres- 

 tris, lucoruniy rttderatus, and hortorum generally suc- 

 ceed in time in making complete canopies, but in the 

 nests of the surface-dwelling species, which, one would 

 imagine, specially need such a protection to keep 

 out the rain, the waxen ceiling is, in most cases, 

 incomplete or absent, and frequently consists only of 

 a small disc of wax over the centre of the comb. 

 B. derhamelhis is particularly disinclined to com- 

 mence building a ceiling ; in several very populous 

 nests of this carder-bee no trace of one was seen. 



In order to watch what is taking place in my 

 observation nests I have sometimes had to remove 

 the waxen ceiling. In a populous colony of lapi- 

 darius it has been entirely built again within two 

 days, the construction commencing at the sides of 

 the box, and the whole ceiling built from these with 

 no other support but that of the bees constantly 

 passing to and fro on the comb. 



