Stingless Bees. 31 
able to them, as soon the bees all died. I now have some 
of the bees and their great black honey and pollen cells in 
our museum. The corbicule or pollen baskets are spe- 
cially well marked, and the posterior tibial spur wanting in 
these small bees. 
Another genus of stingless bees, the genus Trigona, 
have the wings longer than the abdomens, and their jaws 
toothed. These, unlike the Melipona, are not confined to 
the New Wor'd, but are met with in Africa, India, and 
Australasia. These build their combs in tall trees, fasten- 
ing them to the branches much as does the Apis dorsata, 
soon to be mentioned. 
Of course insects of the genus Bombus—our common 
bumble-bees—belong to this family. Here the tongue is 
’ very long, the bee large and the sting curved, with the 
barbs very short and few. Only the queen survives the 
winter. In spring she forms her nest under some sod or 
board, hollowing out a basin in the earth, and after storing 
a mass of bee-bread she deposits several eggs in the mass, 
The larve are soon hatched out and develop in large 
coarse cells, not unlike the queen-cells of our hive-bees, 
When the bees issue from these cells the latter are strength- 
ened with wax. Later in the season these coarse wax cells, 
which contain much pollen, become very numerous, serv- 
ing both for brood and honey. At first in spring the queen 
has all to do, hence the magnificent bumble bees, the 
queens, seen about the lilacs in early spring. Soon the 
smaller workers become abundant, and relieve the queen, 
which then seldom leaves the nest. Later, the drones and 
the small, because yet unimpregnated and non-laying, 
queens appear. Thus the bees in a bumble-bee’s nest 
correspond exactly with those in the hive. The young 
queens mate in late summer, and are probably the only 
ones that survive the winter. The bumble-bee drones are 
-- often seen collected about shady places at the mating sea- 
son in August. 
Bees of the genus Xylocopa, much resemble bumble- 
“pees, though they are less hairy, and are our largest bees. 
They have not the corbicula, These are among out 
finest examples of boringinsects. With their strong, biden- 
