VI 



WAX-WORKERS 



The workers in wax are not a numerous company, 

 so far as species are concerned ; but being social 

 insects they form communities that more than 

 make up for paucity of species by the abundance 

 of individuals. These communities are also con- 

 tinuous. With the Masons, the Miners, and the 

 Carpenters, the clever work they have done ceases 

 to be useful after one season's use. The insects 

 themselves are but annuals. The workers in wax, 

 on the other hand, are perennial — that is to say 

 as communities ; the workers themselves, other 

 than the queen, or egg-laying female, are no longer 

 lived than their solitary relations. A wild com- 

 munity of Honey Bees in a cave might go on for 

 ever. 



The huge difference in the two groups — social 

 and solitary — that this implies has been brought 

 about solely by the discovery of the socials that if 

 they retained honey in their stomachs their vital 

 chemistry would convert it into wax. But for this 

 discovery the Honey Bee would probably never 

 have figured largely in human literature as she has 



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