1923] 
Notes on the Egg-Eating Habit of Bumblebees 
195 
observe that an egg was sucked dry by a worker, but he believes 
that this was entirely due to the fact that the egg was accidentally 
injured, and that the worker, after having tasted the sweet juice, 
found the latter suitable as food. ‘‘If”, says Wagner (p. 88), 
“this affair [the fight for the eggs] took place in the manner 
described by the author, bumblebee colonies could never 
become as populous as they actually are, since the eggs would 
be inevitably destroyed by one of the workers as soon as the 
queen takes up the pursuit of other obtrusive workers; this [the 
destruction of the eggs] naturally takes considerably less time 
than is required for a rough and tumble fight****, and for rolling 
about on the floor******. During such encounters not only one, 
but five ‘batches of eggs’ can be despoiled.” Wagner (pp. 88-89) 
therefore comes to the conclusion that Hoffer (1882-83) per- 
mitted himself to be deceived by the usual excitement among 
the members of a bumblebee colony when the latter is exposed 
to light. 
Opposed to this negative evidence of Wagner (1907), we 
have the further positive evidence of Sladen (1912, pp. 51-52) 
who states that this fight for the eggs may be witnessed in the 
case of Brernus (Bombus) lapidarius and Bremus terrestris at the 
time the male and queen eggs are laid=^, a statement which, as I 
have shown recently (1922a, p. 28), also applies to one — if not 
all — of our American species. 
We now come to the more difficult task of interpreting this 
race-suicidal habit of bumblebees. After describing this un- 
natural (from the human standpoint) practice of bumblebee 
society with considerable detail, Huber (pp. 260-261) gives way 
to the following reflexions: “What is to be thought of Nature, 
when she seems to give to insects the faculty of destroying their 
own species, when she permits hivebees to kill their males, and 
gives bumblebees the right and the desire to devour the newly- 
laid eggs? 
^That “the fight for the eggs” probably occurs only at this period of the 
life-history of bumblebee colonies, is corroborated by my own observations 
(1922a, p. 28), and partly also by these of Harter (1890) and Lindhard (1912). 
Although I had about fifty incipient bumblebee colonies under close obser- 
vation during the summers of 1922 (cf. 1923) and 1923, I failed to find any 
trace of such habit in the colonies during this period of their development. 
