i 7 8 THE HUMBLE-BEE vm 



contained " almost always 300 to 400 individuals ; 

 but at the time of greatest prosperity far over 400. 

 They flew like bees in and out ; frequently they 

 thronged into the flight- hole exactly like honey- 

 bees, especially before rain, when the first drops 

 fell. They possessed an extraordinarily large 

 amount of honey ; frequently more than 100 cocoons 

 and honey-pots were filled with it." 



In Corsica the queen of ruderatus, like that of 

 the Corsican terrestris, has no yellow bands and 

 has the tail red ; the worker resembles the queen, 

 except that the red tail is lighter, but the male 

 shows traces of the yellow bands and his tail is 

 orange or white. This is the variety corsicus. 



The males of ruderatus select certain trees, and, 

 following one another from tree to tree, hover round 

 the foliage at a considerable height from the ground, 

 whereas the males of hortorzim fly close to the ground, 

 as explained on page 13. 



Fully-developed ruderatus queens are the largest 

 of the British Bombi, although large examples of 

 latreillellus, distinguendus, and terrestris are almost 

 equal to them. The tongue of ruderatus is about 

 as long as that of hortorum, and, like kortorum, 

 rtiderahis visits the longest -tubed flowers. Its 

 especial favourites are the white dead-nettle, hore- 

 hound, and red clover. 



