128 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



VII 



having in each case seen the queen flying in and 

 out on several different occasions. Each was of a 

 different species lapidarius, terrestris, ruderatus, 

 hortorum, and latreillellus and I was looking forward 

 with pleasure to digging up the nests and transfer- 

 ring them to observation domiciles as soon as the 

 first workers appeared. But no workers were seen, 

 except in the case of the latreillellus, and here when 

 I came to take the nest the queen was not to be 

 found. 



The weather improved towards the end of July, 

 and in August nearly all my nests under wooden 

 covers developed into populous colonies. 



The experiments were continued on a small scale 

 in 191 1. This season was in many ways the 

 antithesis of the two preceding ones, the weather 

 being continuously dry and warm, with the exception 

 of a short period of showers and coolness towards 

 the end of June, which, however, did not cause the 

 humble-bees any inconvenience. Unfortunately the 

 previous bad season had rendered queens less plenti- 

 ful than usual, and lapidarius queens in particular 

 were scarcer than I had ever before remembered 

 them to be. Nine domiciles were made with Sladen 

 wooden covers : three of these were occupied, two 

 by lapidarius and one by a latreillellus. Twenty- 

 two tin domiciles were made, but only three were 

 occupied, two by lapidarius and one by sylvarum. 

 Twelve domiciles of terra-cotta, constructed on the 

 principle of the tin domicile, but with the diameter 

 at the bottom much larger than at the top, were also 



