x MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 265 



as much attention to the brood as the terrestris 

 workers did. When the nests in my bee-house 

 were about to break up at the end of the season, 

 the workers of the different species were often found 

 in one another's nests. In all these cases the nests 

 were weak ; I have never known a bee of a strange 

 species to gain admittance into a strong nest. Even 

 Psithyri, as has been mentioned, are not suffered to 

 enter colonies of the species on which they prey if 

 they are populous. 



The brood of the humble-bee is less easily killed 

 by cold than that of the honey-bee. I have known 

 lapidarius workers to hatch from cocoons that have 

 not been incubated for two days, and I was some- 

 times successful in getting bees to emerge from 

 deserted cocoons by placing them between the 

 quilts that covered my colonies of honey-bees. 



If I wished to do anything to or with a queen 

 without exciting her, for instance to clip her wings, 

 I found it best to let her fall into a drowsy state by 

 confining her in a box for an hour or two without 

 food. 



There are two ways of holding a queen in the 

 fingers so that she cannot sting: (1) by grasping 

 both wings close to the roots ; 1 and (2) by gripping 

 the thorax on both sides. 



The eyes of a humble-bee, like a photographic 

 plate, are less sensitive to yellow light than ours. 



1 This method is also safe for a worker humble-bee and for a worker 

 honey-bee of the Italian race or of my British Golden breed, but not for a 

 worker of the English black honey-bee, nor for a wasp, the abdomen being 

 more mobile in these. 



