NATURE 



[October 31, 1912 



'NEW OBSERVATIONS OX HUMBLE-BEES.^ 



THIS account of the humble-bee has a merit 

 very uncommon in popular books of natural 

 history ; it is written by a naturalist who has 

 spent years in observing: for himself, and whose 

 observations are numerous, original and interest- 

 ing:. There are set before us new facts concern- 



ing (among- other things) the domestic manage- 

 ment of several humble-bees, the packing of pollen 

 into the collecting basket, the habits of the para- 

 sitic bee, Psithyrus, the insect-devourers of the 

 broods of humble-bees, or of the food-supply stored 

 in the nest, and the perfume of male humble- 

 bees, besides many practical suggestions for the 

 tending of humble-bee families in captivity. The 

 diflerent species are pictured in excellent colour- 

 pliotographs, which will save trouble to observers 

 who are not yet practised in systematic identifica- 

 tion, and there are useful photographs of humble- 

 bee nests, combs and incubating females. 



May we suggest to the author that, if an oppor- 

 tunity offers of revising his work, he would do 

 well to prefix a simple account of the life-history 

 and economy of some one humble-bee? There is 

 a choice of such histories in Reaumur, each 

 marked by a lucidity and grace which captivate 

 the reader. One of these, shortened and revised, 

 would meet a want which many readers are likely 

 to have felt. It is singular that Reaumur is never 

 mentioned by Mr. Sladen, though room has been 

 found for a longish quotation from the Abb6 

 Pluche ! 



Mr. Sladen's excellent matter is not always 

 well arranged; we have found it troublesome to 

 recover passages the place of which in the book had 

 not been noted. Our author seems to suppose that 



' The Humble-Bee, Its Life-hisl.iry .-ind how to Domesticate it. With 

 British Species of Hombus and I'.sithyrus." By 

 '" »-283 : illustr.ited. (London : Macmillan and 



humble-bees give out heat whenever they are 

 active. Can this belief be supported by thermo- 

 meter readings? There is a hint, too, but not more 

 than a hint, of blood-vessels filled with a red fluid. 

 We are convinced that this supposition (if really 

 entertained) is a delusion. Corrigenda like these 

 are trifles. Our main duty is to recognise Mr. 

 Sladen as a careful and clever observer, and to 

 recommend his work as a trustworthy 

 iccount of a particularly interesting 

 group of insects. 



Buttel - Reepen (Biol. Centralbl, 

 1903), drawing upon information con- 

 tributed by many other naturalists, 

 among whom Mr. Sladen is named, 

 has traced the ascent step by step, from 

 the solitary bees to the complex com- 

 munities of the honey-bees. In the sim- 

 plest bee families the life of all the in- 

 dividuals is short, and the mother dies 

 without ever seeing her progeny. Then 

 we pass to bees the females of which 

 regularly outlast the winter ; the cells 

 are collected into some kind of comb, 

 and the nest is guarded. In the humble- 

 hees there is a further advance ; the 

 labour of the mother is now shared by 

 parthenogenetic workers, though these 

 are only seen during the flowering 

 season, and perish before winter. The 

 (limax is reached in what we illogically 

 but conveniently call the honey-bees 

 (the humble-bees also are collectors and 

 storers of honey) ; of these the hive-bee 

 is the most familiar example. Here the 

 workers persist from year to year, and become 

 supreme, the mother (now called the queen-l)ee} 

 being degraded to a captive, and incessantly 

 occupied with egg-laying. If the humble-bees had 

 not been carefully studied we could only have 

 guessed at the stages by which the elaborate polity 

 of the hi\'e has been, or mav have been, attained. 



all the 

 K. W. I„ Sladen. Pp. 

 C-., Ltd., T<>t2.) Price ; 



NO. 2244, VOL. 90] 



The last news is that Mr. Sladen is joining the 

 staff of the Central Experimental Farm at Ottawa. 

 We wish him all success in his new sphere, and 

 hope that he will not be too much occupied by his 

 work in Canada to give a thought now and then 

 to the Hymenoptera. L. C. M. 



