BUMBLEBEE, a wild bee of some species of the genus Bombus, of which upward of 50 species inhabit North America. Few occur in the southern hemisphere or tropical regions, and none in Africa south of the Sahara or in Australia, while they are the only bees inhabit ing Arctic and Alpine regions. The bumble, or humble, bee is recognized by its large, thick, hairy body and long bass hum. The colonies of bumblebees are not numerous compared with those of wasps, or the stingless or the honey bee. A populous colony in• England• and America may number from 300 to 400 individ uals. The proportion of sexes and castes of Bombus muscorum in England were found by Smith to be, in a colony of 120, 25 females, 36 males and 59 workers. The roundish oval cells differ in size and have no exact arrange ment. Besides the cells containing the young, the old discarded ones are made to serve as honey tubs or pollen tubs, and there are also the cells of the guest or Psithyrus bees. In good weather and when flowers are plentiful the bees collect and store honey in abundance, and when the empty pupa-cells are full they form special cells made entirely of wax and these are filled with honey, and left open for the benefit of the community (Sharp). Hofer states that special tubs for the storing of pollen are sometimes constructed. Putnam says that the larva make their own cells of silk, which are finally strengthened with wax by the old bees. Bumblebees have been seen working in warm moonlight nights. About two centuries ago Godart stated that a trumpeter bee is kept in some nests to rouse the colony to work by three or four o'clock in the morning, and this has been recently confirmed by Hofer, who ob served the fact in his laboratory. If the trum peter was removed its place was filled the next morning.
There is a great deal of variation in our bumblebees, and, besides the local and climatic varieties, polymorphism is apparently marked, as Packard has (in Bombus fervidus) detected two sets of males and females, the large and the small; but whether there are two sizes of workers has not yet been ascertained. The queen bees lay their eggs in masses of bee bread attached to the top or sides of the old cells, in little enclosures formed by thin par titions set up by the bee after the eggs have been deposited. Thus placed, says Packard, in
a mass of food, the young larva, on hatching, begin, by eating the food,gradually to construct their cells in the manner described by Putnam, who gives the following account of the economy of the bumblebee colony: The queen awakens in early spring from her winter's sleep beneath the leaves or moss, or in deserted nests, and selects a nesting-place, generally in an aban doned nest of a field-mouse, or beneath a stump or sod, and immediately collects a small amount of pollen mixed with honey, and in this deposits from 7 to 14 eggs, grad ually adding to the pollen mass until the first brood is hatched. She does not wait, how ever, for one brood to be hatched before laying the eggs of another; but as soon as food enough has been collected, she lays the eggs for the second. As soon as the larva are capable of motion, and commence feeding, they eat the pollen by which they are surrounded, and, grad ually separating, push their way in various directions. Eating as they move, and increasing in size quite rapidly, they soon make large cavities in the pollen mass. When they have attained their full size, they spin a silken wall about them, which is strengthened by the old bees covering it with a thin layer of wax, which soon becomes hard and tough, thus form ing a cell. The larvae now gradually attain the pupa stage, and remain inactive until their full development. They then cut their way out, and are ready to assume their duties as workers (small females), males or queens.
The cells vary in size and are known as queen, worker and drone cells. Of the first brood only workers are permitted to survive. These now supply the colony with honey and pollen and the queen remains in the nest, laying eggs from which emerge new workers until the colony is strong. About mid-summer males or drones are permitted to develop and in July a number of eggs are laid in the queen cells. The young queens are fertilized by the drones in the fall, the latter dying after the effort. On the ap proach of cold weather all the workers die, leaving the nest in possession of the queens, who sleep through the winter to awaken in spring, when the process begins anew. See