102 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



wasps being attracted by the same cause, the humble-bees 

 entirely forsook the nest. 1 



The workers are the most numerous part of the community, 

 but are nothing when compared with the numbers to be found 

 in a vespiary or a bee-hive : two or three hundred is a large 

 population for a humble-bees' nest; in some species it not 

 being more than fifty or sixty. They may more easily be 

 studied than either wasps or hive-bees, as they seem not to 

 be disturbed or interrupted in their works by the eye of an 

 observer. 2 



I am, &c. 



1 Hub. Nouv. Observ. ii. 373. 



2 This account of the proceedings of humble-bees is chiefly taken from Reau- 

 murj vi. Mem. and M. P. Huber in Linn. Trans. \i. 214. 



