WASPS, ANTS AND BEES 



191 



The wax produced by the workers is a secretion which issues 

 as a liquid, soon hardening, from pairs of thin five-sided plates, 

 one pair on the ventral surface of each of the last four abdomi- 

 nal segments. It is secreted by modified cells of the skin, 

 lying under the chitinized cuticle of the plates, and oozes out 

 through fine pores in the plates. To produce it certain workers 

 eat a large amount of honey, then massing together form a 

 curtain or festoon hanging down from the ceiling of the hive 

 or frame, and increase the temperature of their bodies by some 

 strong internal exertion; after the lapse of several hours, some- 

 times indeed of two or three days, fine, thin, glistening, nearly 

 transparent scales of wax appear on the 

 " wax-plates. " These wax-scales continue 

 to increase in area and soon project beyond 

 the margin of the segment, when they 

 either fall off or are plucked off by the 

 wax-producing worker. They are then 

 taken in the mouth, sometimes chewed 

 and mixed with some saliva, and carried 

 to the seat of the comb-building operation. 

 Here the wax is pressed against the frame 

 roof (or artificial foundation) and by means 

 of the trowel-like mandibles moulded into 

 the familiar hexagonal cells; each comb be- 

 ing composed of a double layer of these 

 cells, a common partition serving as base 

 or bottom of each tier. Although most 

 bee books speak rather glibly of the comb-building operations, 

 many of its details are still undetermined. In building cells 

 for storing honey, new wax is almost exclusively used; for 

 brood-cells, old wax and wax mixed with pollen may be used. 

 Any comb or part of a comb not needed is torn down and 

 the wax used to build other comb or to cap cells. 



The seeking and collection of pollen and honey is not under- 

 taken by a bee until from ten to fifteen days after its emergence 

 from the pupal cuticle, these first days being spent in the hive 

 at nurse or other indoor work. Then short orienting flights 

 begin to be made, and soon the long-distance flights (a mile or 



FIG. 90. Ventral 

 view of abdomen of 

 honey-bee worker, 

 showing wax plates. 

 (About 3 times nat- 

 ural size.) 



