Tanya Anderson, age 10, of Eugene, Oregon, for her question:

Is there a queen bumblebee?

Yes, there is. She is a fat furry lady with gauzy little wings and handsome yellow stripes. The queen bumblebee is born in late summer and goes off to spend the winter alone, hidden away in some cozy crevice. When spring returns she comes forth to find a suitable nest. It may be a desert¬ed' mouse hole or perhaps a pocket in a tuft of grass. There she builds a waxy pot and fills it with honey. Then she builds a few waxy cells and lays an egg in each one.

When the grubs hatch, she tends them until they become grown up workers. They tend the next batch of babies and by late summer there may be 50 working daughters in the queen's family. Then she lays a few more eggs that become princes and princesses. Soon they leave the nest and the young queens go off to hide through the winter. When the summer ends, the old queen dies. So do her workers and the drone princes. Only the young queens survive to start new nests when spring comes around again.