A FOSTER-MOTHER 237 



seemed to have made her content to remain 

 inside. 



From this date the colony prospered exceedingly, 

 and in the middle of August, when its population 

 was at the highest, it must have contained over 200 

 workers. I attribute this good result to the intro- 

 duction of a vigorous queen into a nest containing 

 plenty of well-developed worker brood and inter- 

 fering with it as little as possible. No doubt, too, 

 the earthen domicile under the wooden cover quite 

 suits the requirements of the humble-bees. 



AN OBSERVATION NEST IN MY STUDY. 



On July 4, 1 9 10, one of my lapidarms queens 

 that had started nesting in one of my artificial 

 domiciles was found dead inside a mouse-excluder I 

 had placed over the mouth of the hole. She left 

 a brood of pupae, larvae, and eggs, and five puny 

 workers. All these I gave to a searching lapidarms 

 queen that had been caught the previous day, and 

 had since been kept in confinement. 



I first introduced the queen to the brood. While 

 she was yet an inch away from it she suddenly 

 abandoned her ordinary dull and careless manner 

 and, standing at attention, stretched out her antennae. 

 No doubt she had smelt the brood and was anxious 

 to sret to it, but restrained herself for fear of encoun- 

 tering a rival. Then she cautiously advanced, and 

 when, half a minute later, she reached the brood she 

 showed great satisfaction and pleasure, and immedi- 

 ately stretched herself over it. 



