Stingless Bees. 3 1 



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 corbiculae or pollen baskets are spe- 

 cially well marked, and the posterior tibial spur wanting in 

 these small bees. 



i 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 World, 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 larvae 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- 

 bees, though they are less hairy, and are our largest bees. 

 They have not the corbiculse. These are among our 

 finest examples of boring insects. With their strong, biden- 



