Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons, 
5 i8 
ground, in hollow trees or under leaves, etc. When spring comes, each 
queen finds some deserted mouse’s hole, mole’s burrow, or other cavity in 
the ground, or digs one herself; she then gathers some pollen and honey 
which she brings to the hole, making there a ball¬ 
like mixed pasty mass of it. On this lump of food 
she deposits a few eggs, from half a dozen to a 
score, and then, while waiting for their hatching, brings 
more food and deposits more eggs. The hatching 
larvae feed on the pollen and honey paste, sepa¬ 
rating and eating out one or more considerable 
cavities in it. When full-grown each spins a silken 
cocoon within which it pupates. The issuing bees 
are all workers. They enlarge the nest-burrow, 
if necessary bring more food, the queen lays more 
eggs, and so for several broods. The larvae ready 
to pupate are enclosed in waxen cells, sometimes 
several in a single cell, by the workers (except in the 
first brood, when there are no workers to make 
the cells). A full-sized bumblebee’s nest maybe as 
large as one’s head, composed of a cluster of large 
irregular waxen cells, mostly containing brood (larvag 
clover-blossom. (From 0 r pupae), but some containing pollen and a few 
life; natural size.) , A11 , i j • i r 
honey. All may be enclosed m a loose covering of 
hay or bits of stems and roots, the whole lying at the bottom of a deep 
or shallow tunnel. There are usually two or more openings to the nest. 
In the late summer and fall males and females are reared, issue from the 
nest and mate. With the oncoming 
of cold weather the males and 
workers gradually die, leaving a few 
fertilized young queens to live 
through the winter. These are the 
founders of next year’s communities. 
All the bumblebees belong to 
the genus Bombus (family Bombidae), 
long-tongued bees with two apical 
spurs on the hind tibiae and with a 
single submarginal cell in the front 
wings. Their big velvety black-and- 
yellow bodies and their deep-toned 
buzz are the more familiar characters 
which distinguish them. Over fifty species of bumblebees occur in this 
country; they differ in size and in the arrangement and relative amounts 
Fig. 723. —Worker {A) and queen ( B ) 
bumblebees, Bombus sp. (After Jordan 
and Kellogg; natural size.) 
Fig. 722.—Bumblebee at 
