than in the Atlantic and Pacific highlands. 
LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS, 
in midsummer or early autumn a bum¬ 
blebee colony produces males and queens. 
The males, which are about the size of the 
workers, are pleasantly scented and make 
long flights over the meadows and the open 
lands in search of the less active females. 
Before leaving the nest to which they sel¬ 
dom return, the virgin queens fill the honey- 
sac with honey; and very soon after im¬ 
pregnation conceal themselves in moss or 
leaves, or burrow in the ground, where 
they remain till the following season. The 
period of hibernation is about nine months, 
species which begin sleeping in July awak¬ 
ening in March, while later species do not 
fly until May or June. The economy of 
American bumblebees is little known, and 
this account is based largely on Sladen’s 
observation of the English species. 
Soon after the warmer weather of spring 
permits the queen to leave permanently 
her place of hibernation she begins to 
search for the nest of a mouse or mole in 
which to rear her colony. A mouse nest 
consists usually of a mass of soft dried 
grass with a hollow in the center. Many 
species of bumblebees prefer nests which 
are underground, while others select those 
which are on the surface. Access to the 
subterranean nests is gained thru a tunnel 
usually not far from two feet in length 
and about an inch in diameter. Queens 
may often be seen examining the ground 
in fields in search of the openings to these 
tunnels. Before she departs for the field, 
the queen forms a memory picture of the 
location by describing above it a series of 
gradually widening circles. In the center of 
the nest a small cavity is formed about an 
inch in diameter and a little less in height, 
with an entrance about the size of the 
queen’s body. 
On the center of the floor of 
this cavity she stores a small 
mass of pollen gathered from 
flowers and moistened with hon¬ 
ey. In a round cell of wax 
about the size of a pea, built on 
top of the pollen, from six to 
twelve eggs are laid, and the top 
of the cell is then sealed over. 
According to Sladen the wax is 
much softer than that of the 
honeybee, and exudes from be¬ 
tween the segments on the upper 
side of the abdomen instead of 
being excreted in little pockets 
on the ventral side of the abdo¬ 
men as in the honeybee. A hon¬ 
ey-pot is built in the entrance to 
the cavity and filled with honey, 
which the queen uses in the 
night time and in rainy weather. 
It is about the size and shape of 
a small marble, with open mouth, 
and, altho very thin and fra¬ 
gile, it’ remains intact for a 
month, which is as long as it is 
needed (Fig. 1). The supply of honey is 
frequently consumed and renewed and is, 
consequently, much thinner than that of 
the honeybee.* In large colonies additional 
honey-pots are built near the edge of the 
comb, and many of the cocoons are filled 
with honey, the number of which may 
amount to three or four hundred. 
*The queen's honey-pot in a nest of B. fprvidux 
examined at Ottawa, Canada, in 1915, was found to 
lie completely closed, possibly a provision of nature, 
preventing ants, etc., from discovering the honey 
when the queen is absent from the nest.—F. W. L. S. 
Fig. 2. —Nest of Bomlvs terrestris showing cluster of co¬ 
coons with groove in the center in which the queen sits, and 
honey-pot. (After Sladen.) 
