A FOSTER-MOTHER 235 



companion occasionally approached her and buzzed, 

 but was afraid to tackle her. 



8 p.m. The foster-mother has been sitting 

 devotedly on the brood and has added a wax rim 

 to the bees- wax cell that I have provided for feeding. 

 The other queen died during the day. 



I placed the nest out of doors under one of my 

 wooden covers, giving it six recently-hatched, good- 

 sized young workers from another nest. 



July 3. At 7.30 a.m. the foster-mother was out. 

 I looked into the nest again at 8.0, 10.0 and 10.30 

 a.m., but did not see her. No doubt she flew out 

 early in the morning and never returned. I had 

 half expected this result, for it had happened under 

 similar circumstances in previous years. The 

 reason seems to be that in nature the queen always 

 learns the position of the nest before she commences 

 to sit on the brood, and when the sitting stage is 

 reached the power to learn a new location is usually 

 lost. But not always, for I once knew a terrestris 

 queen to return. Although, no doubt, the present 

 lapidarius queen carefully marked the position 

 of her home when she left it, the memory of it 

 was soon effaced in the absorbing work of gathering 

 food for the' brood, and so she got lost. 



1 1.30. Happening to be walking in the apiary I 

 saw, searching about in the same place where I had 

 caught the foster-mother on July 1, a lapidarius 

 queen, with pollen on her legs. As an ordinary 

 searching queen is never laden with pollen I watched 

 her for a few minutes, and, concluding from her 



