360 THE INSECT WORLD. 
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 workers have the same organisation 
for plundering flowers as the bees have: 
they have similar trunks and their legs are 
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 walls, in heaps of 
stones, &c. The former establish themselves in cavities situated 
as far as half a yard under ground, 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 nest. 
Having seized a packet of the moss, it sets to work to draw out 
the bits with its mandibles, 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 to the third, and so on, up to 
the nest. When the materials are ready, the insect makes use of 
them to manufacture a sort of hemispherical lid, or covering, 
resembling felt, which shuts the nest in, and is lined with wax. 
If you lift up this covering, or small dome, which it is not dan- 
gerous to do, for humble bees are not very aggressive, you find 
beneath it a nest, composed of a coarse comb. 

Fig. 333.—Male Humble Bee. 
