156 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



and the bees work it skilfully into thin sheets and 

 cells. 



This species is one of the best and most interest- 

 ing to study. Among its favourite flowers are 

 sycamore, sainfoin, birds'-foot trefoil {Lotus cornicu- 

 latus), and the knap-weeds (Centaurea scabiosa and 

 nigra). It is also fond of many of the flowers 

 frequented by honey-bees. 



The variety of the queen having a greyish- 

 yellow band on the front of the thorax is rare in 

 Britain. Smith saw only a single specimen taken 

 near Sandwich, Kent, and for twenty years I 

 have never noticed it. During the cold season of 

 1 910, however, several undersized workers from 

 larvae that had been starved and chilled during the 

 early part of their existence developed a prominent 

 band. 1 In the following year (191 1) the band was 

 to be seen faintly in a number of normal specimens. 

 In one nest taken, the queen and nearly all her 

 workers showed it more or less, and in five out of 

 eieht nests traces of it were to be seen in some of 

 the workers. In July 191 1 a well-developed worker, 

 showing a very perfect band, was sent me by Mr. 

 H. Ellison from Stromness, Orkney, together with 

 three queens, one of which showed faint traces of a 

 band. The variation seems to be favoured by in- 

 clement weather. When the band is very faint it can 

 only be seen by looking at the specimen from in front 

 and it is interrupted in the middle. Very faintly- 



1 In 191 1 I bred several freak workers of this kind, having also a faint band 

 on the back of the thorax. 



