August 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
341 
parts of England and the continent. The writer has been 
induced, in consequence of some omissions made in former 
histories, to supply them for the use of the naturalist who 
can condescend to spend time in the pursuit of such studies, 
and his object is mainly to describe the extraordinary habits 
of the drones, or males of all the four species of Bombi- 
natrices, which have come under his immediate notice and 
observation, and which have never been described by any 
former writer on the subject. 
GENUS BOMBUS. 
1st. Apis Lucokuh.* 
This is the most common and best known of the four 
species ; it inhabits all parts of Great Britain and the Con¬ 
tinent, but is more plentiful in the northern part of the 
kingdom than in the south; indeed, I have found, that in 
the southern and western counties, the nests do not contain 
so many inhabitants as even in the midland counties, pro¬ 
bably owing to the scarcity or abundance of the wild flowers. 
The female may be seen in the spring, flying from flower to 
flower ; she is much larger than the worker, and commences 
a nest by herself in the ground; sometimes she takes 
possession of some hole near, excavated by some reptile, 
but often it is made entirely by herself; in the latter case, 
her nest is not so apt to be destroyed by the field mouse, 
the most determined enemy to the wild bee. The queen 
and workers are so well known, that it is almost useless to 
describe them ; but the male bee is very different, being of 
a bright buff colour, with a white abdomen, and is one of 
the most beautiful bees of the whole genus. These drones 
are very fond of the blossoms of the Salvia (puce- 
coloured), and the blue Veronica, a common ‘spiral’ 
flower, to be seen in almost every garden. Although the 
Apis lucorum appears the first in the spring, generally in the 
beginning of March, the males do not hatch or leave the 
nest until full a month later than some of the other 
species. 
The whole species of Apis lucorum is subject to a disease 
from small lice, which fasten upon the head and trunk of 
the poor insect, and often eventually separate the trunk 
from the lower part of the body, and thus destroy the insect. 
It is a remarkable fact, that I have invariably found the 
queen, at spring time, more infested with these lice in the 
south, and south-west of England, than in Scotland, where 
my first acquaintance with their habits began. 
I have read with much pleasure, Monsieur Eeaumer’s, 
and also Monsieur E. P. Huber’s accounts of these insects, 
and very faithful ones they are, as far as they go. I cannot 
do better than copy a part of their history. 
“ This bee is well known in small woods and plantations, 
and makes its nest in holes in the ground. The females of 
this, as of all the other species, are largest in size, the 
males next, and the workers smallest. Early in spring, 
when the willows begin to appear in bloom, the female may 
be seen traversing the gardens by sunrise, with her usual 
sonorous booming, and busy in collecting honey and pollen 
from the catkins; the workers do not appear until a later 
period, and the drones not until late in the summer and 
autumn, when the thistles are in blossom, on the flowers of 
which they are found in great numbers. (The drones 
appear about the third week in July, or beginning of 
August, according to circumstances; if a hot summer, 
early; if wet, much later. I have noticed some as early as 
the 20th of July; and in 1847, I observed one three weeks 
earlier, June, 28th ! !—H. W. N.) The females only, of all 
the former year’s colony, have survived the winter, and now 
dispersing, each seeks a residence for herself, where she 
may become the foundress of a new community. Having 
pitched upon a convenient spot, the laborious insect proceeds 
first, to excavate the passage or gallery, then the nest itself, 
detaching the soil as it were, grain by grain. These ex¬ 
cavations are situated often a foot under the surface. Having 
finished the excavation, and carpetted her new dwelling 
with soft leaves, ifcc., the insect proceeds to construct brood 
* The Apis lucorum is very similar in appearance to one of its con¬ 
geners, the Apis terrestris. The former has its nest generally in small 
dry open plantations in groves ; the latter more in open fields, meadows, 
and pastures; and the male of the teivestris is the same colour as the 
worker. Their mode of nidification, and their choice of flowers and 
blossoms are precisely the same. 
cells; the wax of which these are formed is secreted as in 
the domestic bee, in certain receptacles placed on each side 
of the middle process of the abdominal scales, and is ex¬ 
tracted by the bee in the form of laminre moulded to the 
shape of the insect’s body; unlike the queen of the hive 
bee, the mother bee of this family possesses these wax- 
secreting organs, as well as the workers, and produces the 
substance in greater quantity than her progeny. 
“ The cells being prepared, the queen mother proceeds to 
lay her eggs, these are not fixed on one end, as with the 
hive bee, but are huddled together without any order; the 
mother guards the eggs carefully, as the workers (if any are 
hatched) are fond of destroying them the first eight or ten 
hours after they are laid ; in four or five days, according to 
the temperature, the eggs are hatched. Males and females 
are bred in the same cell, and fed alike. (The meaning of 
this sentence is, that only one at a time is bred in the cell, 
but the second may be a male. —H. W. N.) The cells are 
frequently rent, but as often filled up by the workers. In 
fifteen days the bee arrives at its perfect state, its body is 
covered with down; it gnaws through the cell, assisted by 
its fellows, and in course of a quarter-of-an-hour, or half- 
an-hour, if the weather be fine, leaves its nest and goes into 
the fields in search of honey.* The cell which it leaves is 
soon filled with honey. As the bees increase in number, 
the mother bee relaxes in her labours. The inmates of a 
humble bee’s nest are of three classes—females, males, and 
workers; the old female is alone in the spring ; in May, the 
eggs which she has laid have been hatched, and produce 
workers only; the females and males of the community do 
not appear till later, none sooner than June, and the greatest 
number in July. Like the hive drone, they have no sting; 
but they are exempted from the severe fate of the former, in 
escaping the cruel massacre to which those are doomed. The 
workers are not all neuters ; many of them breed in spring, 
copulate with the males in June, and lay eggs soon after, 
but only those of males. (This I have never seen or dis¬ 
covered. I never saw the wild bees in coitu, except about 
three or four times in forty years; these were about the end 
of August; and among the numerous nests which I have 
removed to my garden, containing many hundreds of bees, 
I never saw a couple together sooner than August.) 
These males fecundate those females which are reared 
towards the end of the season, but which do not begin to 
lay until the following spring, when they each lay the foun¬ 
dation of a new colony. At the approach of winter—that 
is, the first winter of their existence—the females, to the 
number of thirty or forty together, make a lodgement in or 
near the old nest, where they pass the torpid season in 
safety and quiet, until the return of spring awakes them to 
life and activity. The old mother, the males, and the 
workers, all perish before the cold season arrives.” ( Beau- 
mer, and P. Huber.) 
I will now notice a few particulars more ; and the first is 
the labour of the queen mother at the commencement. As 
soon as she has formed two or three cells her labours are 
incessant, and I have watched her from the nest for the 
first fortnight. At this period she is seldom longer from 
the nest than from three to five minutes, no doubt to pre¬ 
vent the young brood-bee from getting chilled to death in 
its cell; only one bee is hatched at first, which immediately 
(after making great observations round) leaves the nest, 
and commences work. It is wonderful to see what obser¬ 
vations a bee makes the first time it issues from the nest. 
It is about two minutes in particularly noticing the entrance, 
and all the objects near, returning many times before 
taking its final flight to work. The organ of locality, as 
phrenologists term it, is most strongly developed in all the 
genus of the Bombinatrices. It is the same with wasps, 
hornets, and hive bees. The queen now remains at home a 
longer time, and when some half-a-dozen bees are hatched, 
her journeys are very rare indeed. I should here remark, 
that the proof of these labours of the mother bee are 
much more easily ascertained with the Apis muscorum, 
in consequence of their easiness of access in the moss; and 
it is to this species of bee I am indebted for my first notice 
of the gradual labours of the queen mother. 
(To be continued.) 
* The cells of the humble bee are never ceiled after being filled, like 
the hive bee, with honey. 
