Vol. XI] FRISON— PRIBILOF ISLANDS BUMBLEBEES 187 



winter and continue the species the following spring and summer. 

 The queen collected by Dr. Hanna on August 24 is in perfect 

 condition and undoubtedly is a queen produced the same season 

 in which she was collected. Queens which have developed or 

 possess a colony can be recognized usually through the loss of a 

 certain amount of pubescence and through the tattered wing 

 margins. The early production of queens and males, colonies of 

 small size and with a poor ratio of workers as compared with 

 a colony of a more austral species are phenomena to be expected 

 in the life-histories of our bumblebees inhabiting the far north. 

 B. kincaidii (Cockerell) may eventually prove to be a "color 

 variant or subspecies of strenuus or polaris" as Franklin has sug- 

 gested. Of the two, B. stenuus (Cress.) is perhaps the closer 

 ally of B. kincaidii (Cockerell). B. strenuus (Cress.) seems to 

 have a more western distribution than B. polaris (Curtis), the 

 latter being one of the common species in Greenland where B. 

 strenuus (Cress.) is unknown. B. polaris (Curtis), however, is 

 reported also as far west as Alaska. Ashmead's record of 

 B. polaris (Curtis) was regarded by Franklin in 1913 as ques- 

 tionable, but since then the species has again been reported 

 from Alaska by both Lutz (1916) and Sladen (1919). At 

 present the separation of B. strenuus (Cress.), B. kincaidii 

 (Cockerell) and B. polaris (Curtis) is based almost entirely upon 

 color characters, as no real distinct structural differences have 

 been discovered. Such color characters are valuable, but subject 

 to extreme variation as every student of the bumblebees knows, 

 and future study may cause all three species discussed to be 

 considered as constituting but one distinct species ; this is 

 particularly true of the two species B. strenuus (Cress.) and 

 B. kincaidii (Cockerell). 



