The Humble Bee by F.W.L. Sladen

F.W.L. Sladen's The Humble-Bee: Its Life-History And How To Domesticate It, originally published in 1912, was the first monograph on bumblebees to appear in the English language. It is by any measure a classic work. With unfailing enthusiasm Sladen weaves together the strands of a simple story of natural history and those of profound scholarship. Young, old, novice or expert-everyone can enjoy sharing Sladen's delight in his subject. It contains descriptions of both Bombus and Psithyrus, together with accounts of their life histories. There are numerous illustrations and photographs by the author as well as five colour plates. It is, in short, the pioneer­ing work that justifies F. W. L. Sladen's role as the father of bumblebee research. Even today, with so much more still to be learnt, The Humble-Bee remains required reading for anyone embarking on a serious study of one of Britain's most appealing native insects. Frederick William Lambert Sladen was a remarkable man. When he died at the tragically early age of 45 his obituary notices recorded that the bee world had now lost one of its brightest ornaments. The scientific com­munity had also lost one of its most gifted self-trained amateur naturalists. In the English speaking world Sladen is known as the father of bumblebee research. He is one of that illustrious company of dedicated naturalists England produced during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. He was born at Shooters Hill near London, and spent his childhood years at Ripple Court, Dover. He was to devote his life to bees and beekeeping. His earliest work The Humble-Bee was produced by him when he was only a boy of 16 years of age. It was written, illustrated, printed on a stencil copying machine, and bound, entirely by himself. It was a work greeted with great enthusiasm and some astonishment by the hymenopterists of the time. But it was only the beginning. Some 20 years later a longer treatise of the same name was published. It has become the classic work on bumblebees. They are now published together for the first time.