HYMENOPTEEA. 361 



The humble bees are known by their great size, their short, 

 robust body, encircled by bands of very bright colours, and by 

 the noise they make in flying. Their hind 

 legs are armed with two spurs. The females^ 

 and the worker^ have e same organization 

 for plundering flowers as the bees have : 

 they have their trunks and their legs fitted 

 with brushes and baskets for gathering 

 pollen. The males, like the males of hive 

 bees, have no sting. The greater number 

 have their dwelling- places under ground ; others make their nests 

 on the surface of the soil, in the cracks of wells, in heaps of 

 stones, &c. The former establish themselves in cavities situated 

 as far as half a yard under grolmd7 and approached by a long 

 narrow gallery. It is almost always a solitary female who has 

 been the architect of the nest. She cleans out the cavity she 

 has chosen, makes it as smooth . as possible, and lines it with 

 leaves and moss, to embellish the subterranean house in which 

 she is to pass nearly all her existence. 



The Moss humble bee (Bombus muscorum), called also the Carding 

 bee, chooses an excavation of very little depth in which to make its 

 nest, or else itself undertakes the hollowing out of a hole in the 

 ground. It covers this with a dome of moss or dry herbs. But 

 it does not fly when transporting the moss, it drags it along the 

 ground, with its back turned towards the south. Having seized a 

 packet of the moss, it sets to work to draw out the bits with its man- 

 dibles, and then pushing them under its body, throws them in the 

 direction of the nest by a sort of kick from its hind legs. Sometimes, 

 towards the end of the season, many humble bees are to be seen 

 working in line. The first seizes the moss, and after having carded 

 it, passes it under its body, and throws it to the second, which 

 throws it on v> the third, and so on, up to the nest. When the 

 materials are ready, the insect makes use of them to manufac- 

 ture a sort of hemispherical lid or covering resembling felt, which 

 shuts the nest in, and is lined with wax. If you lift up this cover- 

 ing or small dome, which it is not dangerous to do, for humble 

 bees are not very aggressive, you find beneath it a nest, composed 

 of a coarse comb, which is surmounted by a vault of wax. 



