THE INSECT POLLINATORS 205 



more or less zigzag fashion. They often alight and explore 

 some nook or cranny that seems to promise a favorable 

 situation for a nest. These queen Bumblebees are the 

 only kind that have been able to live through the winter, 

 and they have been sheltered in some deserted mouse nest 

 or similar covering. 



When the queen Bumblebee finds a place that she thinks 

 suitable for a new nest, she adopts it for the home of her 

 future colony. Then she flies to the early spring flowers 



and gathers nectar and pollen which 



she brings to her nest and of which | 

 she forms little balls of " bee bread." ^ 

 This consists simply of a sort of paste ; 

 made by mixing honey and pollen 1 

 together. Upon each of these food j 

 balls, the queen bee deposits an egg. | 



Very shortly each of these eggs ^ '■ '■ 



hatches into a tiny footless larva that bumblebee showing 

 •' Pollen Masses on 



feeds upon the bee bread and gradu- hind legs 



ally increases in size. Before very 

 long it becomes full-grown as a larva and changes to a 

 pupa or chrysalis, and a little later into an adult Bum- 

 blebee. These adults are smaller than the queens and are 

 the first of the season's broods of worker Bumblebees. 



These worker bees soon undertake a large part of the 

 care of the colony. They form the curious and character- 

 istic cells which are found so abundantly in Bumblebees' 

 nests late in summer, and they gather nectar and pollen 

 for the food of the young. The queen bee is thus left 

 free to deposit eggs for more broods of future workers. 



Thus the colony passes through the summer, constantly 

 increasing in numbers and all working together for the 

 good of the great bee family. They visit flowers of many 



