INSECTS PRODUCING WAX, RESIN, HONEY, MANNA. 77 



ment while in the larva state, and if by any accident 

 the queen-bee of a hive is lost or killed, the remain- 

 ing bees have the power of nourishing any of their 

 common larvae in such a manner as to produce a 

 queen.* 



A word upon the working bees. There are two 

 varieties : the wax makers and the nurses. The 

 former are large and robust, they fly into the 

 country to collect the pollen and sugar of flowers ; 

 the others, less strong, remain in the hive; their duty 

 is to feed the young larvee. 



A beautiful example of applied mathematics is 

 furnished by the bee-cell. Each cell of the honey- 

 comb is a hexagon the base of which is composed 

 of three rhomboidal plates so composed as to contain 

 the largest amount of honey with the least quantity 

 of wax.f 



Lord Brougham, in a paper read at the Paris 

 Academy (May, 1858), asserts that the cells of the 

 larvse of bees are lined with a species of silk ; when 

 the wax is separated there remains behind what 

 appears to be a very fine tissue of silk. 



It is now beyond doubt that the wax of the bee 

 is not taken from the vegetable world, but is pro- 

 duced by the insect itself. The fact was ascertained 



* See on this Kirby and Spence " Introduction to Entomology." 

 Lond, 1858, pp. 361, 362, et seq. 



f See Kirby and Spence, loc fit, p. 273. 



