n6 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



VII 



angry buzzes, which are kept up for some time, and 

 if further alarmed she will rush about and make a 

 great fuss. In this connection it is interesting to 

 note that the nature of the queen is always to remain 

 at home, except when she is actually gathering food. 

 Even if, through stress of weather, she is starving, 

 she remains sitting faithfully on her brood, cold and 

 lethargic, but ready to wake up and buzz should 

 any intruder approach. 



In three cases it was ascertained that the queen 

 deserted her nest because her first eggs were de- 

 voured by ants, the offenders being in two instances 

 the common black garden ant, Lasins niger, and in one 

 instance the large brown ant, Myrmica rubra. These 

 two species of ants were very common, as was also 

 the yellow garden ant, Lasius flavus, but this was 

 not observed to do any mischief. In all three cases 

 the eggs were eaten, and all hope of saving the 

 nest gone, before I noticed anything wrong ; but 

 in another nest under a wooden cover I had the 

 good fortune to discover the ants before they had 

 begun to attack the brood, and succeeded in pro- 

 tecting it from them, a good colony resulting. The 

 method I employed was first to destroy every ant 

 I could find in the nest and tunnel, and then to 

 make a shallow trench around the wooden cover 

 and entrance of the hole, pouring into the trench 

 a mixture of turpentine and paraffin oil, the strong 

 smell of which acted as a deterrent to the ants. 

 Of course the smell gradually grew weaker, and I 

 renewed it five days later by pouring some more 



