Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants and Other Stinging Insects

by Edward Saunders

THE HUMBLE BEES

Of these beautiful creatures we have thirteen kinds in this country. Their velvety clothing and bright colours make them the favourites of most people. They are most industrious and may be seen on the wing from early morning often till quite late on summer evenings, whereas the solitary bees do not, as a rule, commence work till nine or ten in the morning, except in very hot weather, and generally retire about four or five p.m. There is an idea prevalent that humble bees do not sting, but this is fallacious. They can sting pretty severely, but I do not think they are so ready to use their defensive weapon as a wasp or hive bee is. The length of the tongue in these creatures makes them of great value to the farmer and gardener, as they can fertilize the red clover and probably other flowers which require a longer tongue to reach the nectary than is possessed by the hive bee.

In New Zealand, when first the red clover was introduced from this country, it was found impossible to fertilize it, and humble bees had to be sent out. Now they are established there its fertilization is carried on quite successfully. The humble bees are divided into two natural groups, the underground species, i.e. those that make a subterranean nest, and the carder bees, as they have been called, which make a nest on the surface of the ground. The former live in much larger communities and are far more aggressive and pugnacious than the latter. They also feed their young, according to Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, of Ripple Court, in a different way. The carder bees "form little pockets or pouches of wax at the side of a wax-covered mass of growing larvæ into which the workers drop the pellets of pollen direct from their hind tibiæ. The pollen storers, on the contrary, store the newly gathered pollen in waxen cells, made for the purpose, or in old cocoons, specially set apart to receive it, from which it is taken and given to the larvæ mixed with honey through the mouths of the nurse-bees as required." As the author remarks, the methods of the underground

species more resemble those of the hive bee than do those of the carder bees. Mr. Sladen has made many experiments in trying to domesticate humble bees, and succeeded so far with Bombus terrestris ([pl. D], 29, our common black and yellow banded species with a tawny tail) as to get it to breed in captivity, and in 1899 was able to show nests in full work at the Maidstone agricultural show, the bees coming in and out of the building to their nest. An interesting case of one of the carder bees (Bombus agrorum) is recorded by F. Smith. It invaded a wren's nest, heaping up its pollen, etc., amongst the eggs of the bird, till the parent bird was forced to desert the nest. The underground species are more subject to the attacks of cuckoos than the carder bees. Altogether the humble bees afford an excellent subject for study, as they appear to be amenable to treatment, and to any one who could give time and careful attention to them many interesting problems connected with them and not yet understood might have light thrown upon them. Dead humble bees are often found in numbers in a mutilated state, under lime trees. These

have been caught after they have filled themselves with honey, and become torpid in consequence, by the great tomtit and possibly other birds. The bird pecks a hole in the insect's thorax, enjoys the honey it has eaten and then drops the quivering body which falls to the ground. I once had the opportunity of seeing this slaughter going on, and was able to detect the great tomtit as the murderer.

In colour the humble bees vary remarkably, the variation occurring chiefly in the females. This variation is not so noticeable in this country, although in many species even here the variability is very great, but when we trace a common species such as terrestris, which varies very little here, over a large area such as the Palæarctic region its liveries are so diverse that its females have been treated as belonging to many different species. In the Siberian district its yellow bands become of a pale, almost whitish or straw colour, and the whole appearance of the insect is altered. If, instead of going north, we go to the Mediterranean region we find a large, fine form tolerably common, with bright yellow hairs on the legs. In Corsica

again we find a quite different form; entirely black except for the bright red hairs on the apex of the body, and bright red tibiæ, clothed with red hairs. In the Canaries another coloration occurs: the whole insect is black with the exception of the apex of the body which is clothed with white hairs; but in all these the male varies comparatively little. In the Siberian and Canary forms it resembles the female, but in the others it varies very little from some varieties we find here. A rather similar series of varieties occurs in Bombus hortorum, another species little liable to variation here. In Italy and south-east Europe a form with entirely black body and black wings occurs, and in Corsica a black form with reddish hairs on the apical segments. The male keeps throughout very constant to its normal coloration. The tendency to vary towards an entirely black form seems to exist in nearly all the species, although in Britain black varieties of some are very rare.

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