306 
THE FLORIST. 
is adorned with small plumed antennae, is yellowish. The body in one 
species is dark brown, with the end of the abdomen covered with white 
down, and in the other black, with a bright rusty red extremity. I 
have found eggs in the bodies of both species. How these eggs are 
introduced into the nests, and the larvae into the combs of humble bees, 
is an entomological puzzle. 
Another species of larva is also found in the nests of humble bees, 
which produces the small flies that swarm in woods and lanes in the 
month of June, and are so perseveringly annoying to horses and 
pedestrians ; this is, I believe, identical with the common small house 
fly. The larvae are of a pale hazel colour, smaller than those above 
described, but possessing likewise the fan-shaped tuft of bristles 
on their broad end; the body is more slender in shape than that of the 
other species ; aud tapers more to the head, which ends in a pointed 
proboscis, which the grub rests upon when in motion, to assist its 
progress. Having at the end of July dug out a nest that was recently 
forsaken by its tenants, I found a vast number of these larvae among 
the combs (which contained no young brood, nor any honey), some full 
grown, others hardly larger than a pin’s head. I have not been able 
to ascertain, however, precisely the manner in which they prey upon 
the bees. Another enemy of the humble bee is the wax moth. The 
caterpillars of this insect, which, when full grown, are about an inch 
long, slender, smooth, and of a pale yellow brown colour, devour the 
comb of such as build on the ground, and bind together the moss which 
covers it, by spinning amongst it slight silky webs. The moth is 
hatched in July, and is about an inch across the wings. As to colour, 
the fore wings, which at the shoulders are buff, are closed at a third of 
their length by a dark red brown streak, having three waves or arches ; 
the centre of the wing is then red brown, blending into the olive green 
tint of its outer portion ; back wings silvery buff. The last enemy of 
the humble bee that I shall notice, as having fallen under my own 
observation, is a little tick, of a pale brown colour, and very active 
in its movements. This harbours more or less in all nests of any 
age, and is a sad pest to its inmates. There are frequently a few to be 
found towards the end of summer on the bodies of most humble bees 
between the thorax and the abdomen of the insect, but they are some¬ 
times destructive to those they infest, for I have seen two young queen 
bees of the Lapidaria species, that came out of a hole in my garden wall, 
so incrusted with these vermin from the thorax to the red coloured 
extremity of their bodies, that they were quite unable to fly, and 
fluttered about for a day or two on the ground, where, no doubt, they 
came to an untimely end. I have now to give such a short description 
of each of the commoner bees as will enable persons unversed in 
entomology to recognise them at sight:— 
1. Terrestris (living in the earth), so called from making its nest 
deep under ground ; this is the commonest species in most parts of the 
country ; its general colour is black, with the front of the thorax and 
a belt across the back of the abdomen yellow, the extremity white. A 
variety of this species has the stripes of the thorax and back and the 
end of the body tawny ; it is usually larger than the other kind. 
