


364 THE INSECT WORLD. 
but they have one bad fault: they are very fond of eating the 
ees laid by the mother. They try to seize them as she deposits 
them, or drag them from the cells, and suck their contents. And 
so the mother is obliged to be incessantly defending her eggs 
against the voracity of the workers, and to be constantly on 
her guard, so as to be ready to drive away these marauders from 
cells newly filled. 
We owe to an English naturalist, Newport, the knowledge of 
another curious fact relating to the laying of humble bees, which 
is the expedient the females and the males have recourse to for 
hastening the hatching of the eggs. They place themselves, hike 
fowls sitting on their eggs, over the wax shells containing the pup 
almost hatched. By breathing quickly, these industrious insects 
raise the temperature of their bodies, and consequently that of the 
air in the cells. Thanks to this supplementary heat, the meta- 
morphosis of the pups is much hastened. Newport, by slipping 
miniature thermometers between the shells of the nymphs and the 
sitting humble bees, ascertained that the temperature of the latter 
was about 34° C., whilst the temperature of the shells left to 
themselves was only 27° C.; that of the air in the rest of the 
nest being only from 21° to 24° C. After many hours of incuba- 
tion, at the same time natural and artificial, in which art and 
nature are so closely allied, after the sitting imsects have many 
times relieved one another, the young humble bees come out of 
their shells. They are at first soft, greyish, wet, and very sus- 
ceptible to cold. But after a few hours they become stronger, 
and the yellow and black bands with which their abdomens are 
surrounded begin to be marked out. The spring laying produces 
exclusively workers. The greatest abundance of eggs are laid in | 
August and September. The laying of the female eggs begins in | 
July ; that of the males follows soon after. 
Until autumn, the humble bees are incessantly enlarging their | 
nests, and multiplying their little pots of honey. Without accu- | 
mulating a great stock of provisions, which they would not be able 
to dispose of, they always keep in reserve a quantity of pollen and 
honey for their daily wants. The cellsin which the honey is stored 
differ very much in shape. Some species of humble bees give them | 
long and narrow necks; others, less recherché in their style of con- | 


