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THE HUMBLE-BEE MACMILLAN and CO., Limited LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE the MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO the MACMILLAN CO

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THE HUMBLE-BEE MACMILLAN and CO., Limited LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE the MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO the MACMILLAN CO THE HUMBLE-BEE MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO A PET QUEEN OF BOMBUS TERRESTRIS INCUBATING HER BROOD. (See page 139.) THE HUMBLE-BEE ITS LIFE-HISTORY AND HOW TO DOMESTICATE IT WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE BRITISH SPECIES OF BOMBUS AND PSITHTRUS BY \ ; Ff W. U SLADEN FELLOW OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON AUTHOR OF 'QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND ' ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR AND FIVE COLOURED PLATES PHOTOGRAPHED DIRECT FROM NA TURE MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1912 COPYRIGHT Printed in ENGLAND. PREFACE The title, scheme, and some of the contents of this book are borrowed from a little treatise printed on a stencil copying apparatus in August 1892. The boyish effort brought me several naturalist friends who encouraged me to pursue further the study of these intelligent and useful insects. ..Of these friends, I feel especially indebted to the late Edward Saunders, F.R.S., author of The Hymen- optera Aculeata of the British Islands, and to the late Mrs. Brightwen, the gentle writer of Wild Nattcre Won by Kindness, and other charming studies of pet animals. The general outline of the life-history of the humble-bee is, of course, well known, but few observers have taken the trouble to investigate the details. Even Hoffer's extensive monograph, Die Htimmeln Steiermarks, published in 1882 and 1883, makes no mention of many remarkable can particulars that I have witnessed, and there be no doubt that further investigations will reveal more. V vi THE HUMBLE-BEE " An article entitled Bombi in Captivity and Habits of Psitkyrus" that appeared in the Entomo- logist's Monthly Magazine for October 1899, con- tained my original division of the species of Bombus into pollen-storers and pocket-makers, and gave accounts of the self-parasitism of certain species, and of the parasitism of B. terrestris upon B. hicorum. Among matter now published for the first time are particulars of the Sladen wooden cover for artificial nests, and details of my humble-bee house. By the employment of the covers anybody may attract humble-bees to nest in his garden, and by obtaining a little wooden house and furnishing it as directed, one may study at leisure and in comfort all the details of their interesting and intelligent ways. The study of humble-bees has hitherto been hampered by the difficulty, encountered even by experienced entomologists, in separating some of the species. It is hoped that the colour-photographs, used in conjunction with the descriptions given, will now remove this difficulty. My thanks are due to Messrs. L. S. Crawshaw, J. W. Cunningham, Geo. Ellison, P. E. Freke, A. H. Hamm, W. H. Harwood, Rev. W. F. Johnson, Rev. F. D. Morice, Messrs. E. B. Nevinson, H. L. Orr, and Rupert Stenton for information kindly supplied about the distribution PREFACE Vll of the rarer species and varieties in different parts in of the kingdom, and, many cases, for the gift or loan of specimens. I desire also to acknowledge the kind help of the officials of the British Museum and of the Irish National Museum in granting me every facility for examining specimens in these national collections. F. W. L. SLADEN. Ripple, Dover, Feb. 5, 191 2. CONTENTS PAGE I. Introduction .... I II. Life-history of Bombus . 12 III. PSITHYRUS, THE USURPER-BEE 59 IV. Parasites and Enemies of the Humble-Bee 73 V. Finding and taking Nests 83 VI. A Humble-Bee House 94 VII. Domestication of the Humble-Bee 102 Attracting Queens to occupy Artificial Domiciles 104 to Getting Queens breed in Confinement . 130 Placing Queens in Empty Nests 136 Complete Domestication 139 VIII. How to distinguish the British Species 143 Preliminary Remarks 143 Table of the British Species 152 Bombus lapidarius 154 ,> terrestris 158 ,, lucorum 160 5} soroensis 162 pratorum 165 jonellus 167 168 ,, var, nivalis lapponicus 169 cullumanus 171 ruderatus 173 hortorum 179 latreillellus 182 distinguendus . 187 ix X THE HUMBLE-BEE VIII. HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE BRITISH SPECIES {cohtd.\ ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. PAGE A pet queen of Bombus terrestris incubating her brood Frontispiece i . of Bombus . Wing-hooks muscorum . Q 2. Antenna-cleaner in fore-leg ... IO of . 3. nest . Diagram commencing . 19 4. Hairs of humble-bee, magnified ..... 20 Pollen- 5. collecting apparatus in hind-legs of queen and worker humble-bee ...... 21 6. Honey -pot from nest of Bombus lapidarius, seen from above ......... 26 7. Honey-pot from nest of Bombus lapidarius, side view 26 8. and of Eggs, larva?, pupae Bombus terrestris . .28 Nest of B. 9. terrestris, showing groove in which queen sits 30 10. of the initial of the humble-bee's Diagram stages brood . 2>3 11. Comb of B. lapidarius, showing two honey-pots brimful of honey ..38 12. Comb of B. lapidarius, showing group of half-full honey- and clusters of . pots irregular worker cocoons . 39 of 13. Comb B. lucorum, showing pollen-pots and honey-pots 41 Comb of B. 14. agrorum, showing pollen-pockets . 42 15. Caterpillar of Aphomia sociella; larva and puparium of devia larvae of Volucella Brachycoma ; bombylatts ; larva of Fannia ..... .74 16. Sphtzrularia bombi ..... 80 Nest of Bombus helferanus 17. ..... 91 18. Plan of Sladen's humble-bee house .... 94 xi xii THE HUMBLE-BEE FIG. PAGE 19. Vertical section through a domicile in Sladen's humble- bee house . .95 20. The sections or storeys shown separately ... 96 21. Comb of B. terrestris from Sladen's humble-bee house . 101 22. Section of Sladen's original device to attract underground- nesting humble-bees . .105 23. Sladen's domicile for humble-bees, with Sladen's wooden cover . .109 of tin . 24. Vertical section Sladen's domicile . .113 25. External anatomy of B. ruderatus . .145 26. Hind metatarsus of B. terrestris (male), B. lucorum (male), B. soroensis (male), and B. pratorum (male) . 163 27. Queen of B. latreillellus incubating her immense lump of ' brood . 185 28. Diagram of cocoons in a commencing nest of B. der- hamellus . .190 29. Hind-leg of Bombus and Psithyrus female . 203 30. Tip of abdomen (under-side) of the queens of each of the British species of Psithyrus, showing the elevations on the 6th ventral segment ...... 204 3 1 . Antennae of Ps. vestalis $ and Ps. distinctus $ . .211 32. Device for excluding ants from humble-bee's nest . 229 t,2- How to hold a humble-bee . .266 34. Loads of pollen collected by Bombi . .274 PLATES I. Bombus terrestris queen, worker, and male. To face p. 158 ,, lucorum ,, ,, ,, lapidarius ,, ,, soroensis ,, ,, II. Bombus pratorum queen, worker, and male. To face p. 172 ,, lapponicus ,, ,, joncllus ,, ,, cullumanus male {slightly faded). two dark three dark ,, ruderatus males, queens. ILLUSTRATIONS Xlll III. Bombus ruderatus yellow-banded queen, worker, and male. ,, hortorum and male. queen, worker, To face p. 182 ,, latreillelites distinguendus ,, ,, IV. Bombus derhamellus queen, worker, and two males. and ,, sylvaricm queen, worker, male. To face p. 192 three ,, agrorum queens, two workers, and two males of various colour patterns. ,, helferanus queen, worker, and male. ,, muscorum ,, V. and male. Psithyrus rupestris queen To face p. 206 ,, vestalis ,, , , distinctus , , ,, barbutellus ,, ,, campestris light queen, light male, and dark male. ,, quadricolor queen, male. VI. Male armatures of all the British species of Bombus and Psithyrus. p. 271 All the specimens shown in the plates are British, except the worker of Bombus soroensis, which is from the Caucasus Mountains, and differs from British specimens in having the yellow on the abdomen extending farther on the 1st segment. A millimetre scale is shown on page 154. INTRODUCTION Everybody knows the burly, good-natured bumble- bee. Clothed in her lovely coat of fur, she is the life of the gay garden as well as of the modestly blooming wayside as she eagerly hums from flower to flower, diligently collecting nectar and pollen from the break to the close of day. Her methodical movements indicate the busy life she leads a life as wonderful and interesting in many of its details as that of the honey-bee, about which so much has been written. Her load completed, she speeds away to her home. Here, in midsummer, dwells a populous and thriving colony of humble-bees. The details of the way in which this busy community the inhabitants came into being, what sort of edifice and what have built, how they carry out their duties, be eventually will become of them will explained to note that the later : it is enough at present colony, like a hive of honey-bees, consists chiefly of workers, small modified females, whose function in life is not the establishment, to give birth but to labour for cells load after bringing home and depositing in B 2 THE HUMBLE-BEE load of sweets, their only relaxation from this arduous toil being domestic work, such as tending the young, building the comb, and keeping the nest clean and tidy. The supposition that the humble-bee worker is less industrious than the honey-bee is erroneous : she labours with the same zeal and tireless energy, never ceasing until, worn out, she fails one day to return home, and, becoming drowsy and senseless, passes out of existence in the cold of the succeeding night. It is true that in a colony of humble-bees the workers are not nearly so numerous as in a bee-hive, but it is some compensation that they are of a larger size than honey-bees, that they begin field - work at an earlier age, that their hours of labour are longer, commencing earlier in the morn- ing and continuing until later at night, and that they are more hardy, minding less the spells of wind and rain, cloud and cold from which no English spring or summer is free.
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