BUMBLEBEE, or HUNIBLEBEE. One of the social bees of the genus Boinlms. It has a thick and very hairy body, the hairs often arranged in colored bands; and differs from the honey-bees in having the tibie of the hinder legs terminated by two spines. The species are numerous and are found in almost all parts of the world, from the equator to the utmost polar limits of vegetation, but they seem to abound most of all in tem perate climates. None is to be found in Aus tralia and New Zealand, so that it was necessary to acclimatize these bees in those countries before clover (•ould be successfully grown there. since that plant depends upon this kind of bees for fer tilization. Consult Insect Life, Vol. 1V. (Wash ington, 1891). (See CROSS-FERTILIZATION.) The form of the name 'bumblebee,' eommonly heard in Great Britain, is a modification of hummei, or hummer-bee. and. like our 'bumblebee,' refers to the loud (Ironing sound produced partly by the wings, but mainly within the tracheve of these insects.
Bumblebees do not form communities so large as those of honey-bees. seldom more than two or three hundred occupying one nest, and in some species not more (loin fifty or sixty. The females are much less prolific than those of honey-bees. The community is dissolved on the approach of winter, since males and workers (lie, and only females remain in a torpid state— among moss, in rotten wood, or in SIMI(' other situation where they may enjoy protection from frost, and concealment from enemies—to per petuate the race by founding new communities. in the ensuing spring. A fertile female selects
for a nest a hollow log or cavity among stones, or some deserted mouse-nest or other hole in sod. Then she procures a mass of pollen and honey, and in the mixture deposits a few eggs. The first brood consists entirely of workers. When some workers are matured, the fertile female aban dons the collection of pollen and ponfines her self to the duties of egg-laying. The workers eolle•t the food, assist the young out of their commis, and enlarge the nest to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of the colony. The workers build rude waxen cells, but without the orderly arrangement of those of the honey-bee. ( For picture of nests and eggs, see Plate of WILD It Ens.) Workers are chiefly produced in the earlier part of the season, males and perfect females in the latter part of it. The females are larger than the males and workers. Bumblebees differ from honey-hees in that their females exist together in the same eommunity without seeking to destroy one another. There is among them nothing analogous to swarming. Their combs do not exhibit the beautiful regularity of structure which characterizes those of the honey-bees; but cells of a comparatively coarse appearance arc clustered together, with silken cocoons of pupfe, balls of the kind already noticed. and open cells or pots tilled with honey. These are preyed upon by mice and many large animals, xvhich devour the brood as well as the honey. See colored Plate of IxsE•rs for portrait. See BEE.