282 



THE ANTHOPHILA. 



struction of new cells for the succeeding broods of 

 larvae. The wax is afterwards stripped off by the 

 workers as soon as the larvae have spun their cocoons. 

 The later broods produce not only workers, but also 

 males and females, so that the community, like that 

 of the Wasps, includes numerous females, which assist 

 the workers in the labours of the nest. The whole 

 number of individuals contained in a nest of Humble- 

 Bees is however very small when compared with the 

 vast armies of Wasps which inhabit one of their un- 

 derground cities, there are seldom more than two 

 hundred of these Bees in one community, whilst Mr. 

 Smith mentions his having found a nest of Bombus 

 fragrans in August containing only about twenty-five 

 females and workers. 



The mode in which the workers construct the dome 

 of the nest, in those species which form their dwelling 

 at the surface of the ground, is exceedingly interesting. 

 They often use a variety of materials for this purpose, 

 but when a supply of moss lies at hand, they always 

 employ this in preference to anything else. But the 

 mode in which this is transported to the spot in which 

 the nest is situated, is exceedingly curious. Instead 

 of taking it up in small portions and flying off with 

 it to the nest, the Bees form in single file upon the 

 ground from their dwelling to the mass of moss to 

 be transferred, with their heads all pointing in the 

 direction of the latter. The foremost Bee then begins 

 pulling out the moss and passing it from one foot to 

 the other until she collects a small ball of moss behind 

 her hind feet, when the second Bee in the file seizes 

 it and passes it under her body to the third; this 

 sends it on to the next, and so on until the ball of 

 material reaches the nest; "in the same way," to 



