312 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



or top of the hive, and by turning itself round to form a kind of void, In 

 whicli it can move itself freely. It then suspends itself to the centre of 

 the space, which it has cleared, the diameter of which is about an inch. 

 It next seizes one of the laminae of wax with a pincer formed by the 

 posterior metatarsus and tibia^, and drawing it from beneath the abdominal 

 segment, one of the anterior legs takes it with its claws and carries it to 

 the mouth. This leg holds the lamina with its claws vertically, the tongue 

 rolled up serving for a support, and by elevating or depressing it at will, 

 causes the whole of its circumference to be exposed to the action of the 

 mandibles, so that the margin is soon gnawed into pieces, which drop as 

 they are detached into the double cavity, bordered with hairs, of the 

 mandibles. These fragments, pressed by others newly separated, fall on 

 one side of the mouth, and issue from it in the form of a very narrow 

 ribband. They are then presented to the tongue, which impregnates them 

 with a frothy liquor like a houillie. During this operation the tongue 

 assumes all sorts of forms ; sometimes it is flattened like a spatula ; then 

 like a trowel, which applies itself to the ribband of wax ; at other times 

 it resembles a pencil terminating in a point. After having moistened the 

 whole of the ribband, the tongue pushes it so as to make it re-enter the 

 mandibles, but in an opposite direction, where it is. worked up anew. 

 The liquor mixed with the wax communicates to it a whiteness and opa- 

 city which it had not before; and the object of this mixture of houillie, 

 which did not escape the observation of Reaumur^, is doubtless to give it 

 that ductility and tenacity which it possesses in its perfect state. 



The foundress-bee, a name which this first beginner of a comb deserves, 

 next applies these prepared parcels of wax against the vault of the hive, 

 disposing them with the point of her mandibles in the direction which she 

 wishes them to take : and she continues these manceuvres until she has 

 employed the whole lamina that she had separated from her body, when 

 she takes a second, proceeding in the same manner. She gives herself 

 no care to compress the molecules of wax which she has heaped together ; 

 she is satisfied if they adhere to each other. At length she leaves her 

 work, and is lost in the crowd of her companions. Another succeeds, 

 and resumes the employment ; then a third ; all follow the same plan of 

 placing their little masses ; and if any by chance gives them a contrary 

 direction, another coming removes them to their proper place. The result 

 of all these operations is a mass or little wall of wax Vk'ith uneven surfaces, 

 five or six lines long, two lines high, and half a line thick, which descends 

 perpendicularly below the vault of the hive. In this first work is no 

 angle nor any trace of the figure of the cells. It is a simple partition in 

 a right line without any inflection. 



The wax-makers having thus laid the foundation of a comb, are suc- 

 ceeded by the nurse-bees, which are alone competent to model and perfect 

 the work. The former are the laborers, who convey the stone and 

 mortar ; the latter the masons, who work them up into the form which the 

 intended structure requires. One of the nurse-bees now places itself 

 horizontally on the vault of the hive, its head corresponding to the centre 

 of the mass or wall which the wax-makers have left, and which is to form 

 the partition of the comb into two opposite assemblages of cells ; and 



> Vide Mon. Ap. Ang. t. 12. «* e. 1. neut. fig. 19, 2 Reaum. v. 424. 



