1863.] 
85 
The males of Bomb! are always smaller than their females; the dif¬ 
ference is greater or less according to the species; in some, the females 
are at least double the size of the males, in others they are only a few 
lines longer. The size of the males and the females scarcely varies in 
each species, but the workers have not so fixed and uniform a size; 
some are so small that they would not be taken for Bombi; others are 
so large that one would be tempted to take them rather for females 
than for workers; nevertheless their size is never equal to that of the 
mothers, and a glance of the eye is sufficient to compare them, and to 
put each one in the place which it ought to occupy.’"’ Again, on p. 
284, he says:—The form of the maxillae of the female is entirely 
like that of the worker; its legs are equally capable of being charged 
with pollen, the colors of both are generally distributed in the same 
manner upon all parts of the body; it appears, that if to so many rela¬ 
tions, we add that of fecundity, we shall make of the workers as many 
small females; for the difference of size is the only exterior character 
by which they can be distinguished.” And again, on p. 290, he says:— 
“ Among the workers there were assuredly small females, which I should 
have recognized, if I had been able to find in them any distinctive cha¬ 
racter.” St. Fargeau (Hym. i, 448) says :—“When the birth of a cer¬ 
tain number of workers has made the work more easy, and the arrival 
of provisions more active, comes the period when the Mother Humble- 
Bee lays eggs of males and at the same time eggs of females. These 
females, at least some of them, acquire a size much above that of the 
mother, founder of the nest. They are in this respect intermediate 
between the latter, and the small barren workers, which first came into 
the world. Like the workers they share in the common labors, and, 
like their mother, they become fecundated by connection with the males 
born at the same period as themselves. These males are also smaller 
than the males which will be born at the end of the summer. * * * * 
Then the population increases in proportion to the number of these 
young females, of medium size, which have just been hatched; the 
number of males especially appears to increase rapidly, which would 
lead me to believe that they gave birth to males only. The female 
founder continues nevertheless her laying, and, towards the end of 
August, there are raised, in each nest, several females of the largest 
size (from three to eight, as far as I have been able to see). It is these 
