518 



Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons, 



ground, in hollow trees or under leaves, etc. When spring comes, each 



queen finds some deserted mouse's hole, mole's burrow, or other cavity in 



the ground, or digs one herself; she then gathers some pollen and honey 

 which she brings to the hole, making there a ball- 

 iike mixed pasty mass of it. On this lump of food 

 she deposits a few eggs, from half a dozen to a 

 score, and then, while waiting for their hatching, brings 

 more food and deposits more eggs. The hatching 

 larvae feed on the pollen and honey paste, sepa- 

 rating and eating out one or more considerable 

 cavities in it. When full-grown each spins a silken 

 cocoon within which it pupates. The issuing bees 

 are all workers. They enlarge the nest-burrow, 

 if necessary bring more food, the queen lays more 

 eggs, and so for several broods. The larvae ready 

 to pupate are enclosed in waxen cells, sometimes 

 several in a single cell, by the workers (except in the 

 first brood, when there are no workers to make 

 the cells). A full-sized bumblebee's nest may be as 

 large as one's head, composed of a cluster of large 



p IG - 22 Bumblebee at irregular waxen cells, mostly containing brood (larvae 



clover-blossom. (From or pupae), but some containing pollen and a few 

 honey. All may be enclosed in a loose covering of 



hay or bits of stems and roots, the whole lying at the bottom of a deep 



or shallow tunnel. There are usually two or more openings to the nest. 



In the late summer and fall males and females are reared, issue from the 



nest and mate. With the oncoming 



of cold weather the males and 



workers gradually die, leaving a few 



fertilized young queens to live 



through the winter. These are the 



founders of next year's communities. 

 All the bumblebees belong to 



the genus Bombus (family Bombidae) , 



long-tongued bees with two apical 



spurs on the hind tibiae and with a 



single submarginal cell in the front 



wings. Their big velvety black-and- 



yellow bodies and their deep-toned 



FIG. 723. Worker (A) and queen (B) 

 bumblebees, Bombus sp. (After Jordan 

 and Kellogg; natural size.) 



buzz are the more familiar characters 



which distinguish them. Over fifty species of bumblebees occur in this 



country; they differ in size and in the arrangement and relative amounts 



