vui BO MB US HORTORUM 181 



The cocoons are of a lighter yellow than those 

 of rttderatus. 



The hum of this species is not so loud as that of 

 many others, and the queen flies very quietly to and 

 from' her nest. 



Irish specimens of the queen are slightly larger 

 than English ones and have the coat slightly 

 coarser, with the yellow thoracic bands rather wider, 

 especially the posterior one, this being almost as 

 wide as the anterior one. In Irish males the yellow 

 bands are also rather wide : a male in the Irish 

 National Museum from Milford, Co. Donegal, has 

 the anterior band twice as wide as the black band 

 immediately behind it. A suitable name for the 

 Irish variety of Jwrtorum is ivernicus. 



The tongue of the queen is almost as long as the 

 entire insect, extending to five-eighths of an inch. 

 It can therefore extract honey from the longest- 

 tubed flowers, such as the woundworts, honeysuckle, 

 nasturtium, red clover, white dead-nettle, and hore- 

 hound, and it prefers these to flowers that are 

 accessible to the shorter- tongued bees, its long 

 tongue making it difficult for it to work on the 

 latter. 



