THE BUTTEHFLY 49 



with an ovipositor, or long tube, by which eggs can be placed 

 at some distance Ijclow the surface. To the first division he- 

 long the bees, wasps, and hornets, certain digging or boring 

 wasps, and the ants. To the second division belong certain 

 species, — as, for example, the ichneumon-flios, — which are 

 parasitic on other insects, the gall-flies or gall-wasps, and the 

 plant-eating Hymenoptera. 



The bees (Apidie') include both social species and those 

 which lead solitary lives. Of 

 the latter, some dig their nests 

 in the ground, others are masons 

 and build their nests of mud, 

 others are cari^enters and make 

 tunnels through pithy plants or 

 even sohd wood, while still others p^,-, sa^sombus, the bumblebee. 

 are leaf-cutters. These leaf-cut- Nat. size. Photo, by W.H.C.P. 

 ting bees carve circular disks from rose leaves, out of which 

 they make cells for their young. 



Of the social bees, our native species belong to the genus 

 Bomlnis, — the "bumble" bees (Fig. 53). The bumblebees 

 build nests in the ground. The queens alone survive the 

 ■wdnter. In the spring each queen chooses some mouse nest 

 or other readj'-formed cavitj^ in a meadow, and places within 

 it a ball of pollen. Upon this food she lays eggs, which 

 develop into worker bees. As soon as the workers are full- 

 grown they begin the task of gathering food and the queen 

 then devotes all her energy to egg-lajdng. Later in the 

 season males and young queens also appear in the nest. 

 The old and young queens dwell together in harmony until 

 autmnn, when all the members of the colony perish excepting 



1 From apis, bee. 



