^4 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



Thorley,* appears to have been the first who suspected 

 the true origin of wax, and Wildman (1769) seems 

 also to have been aware of it; but Rt'aumur, and 

 particularly Bonnet, though both of them in general 

 shrewd and accurate observers, were partially de- 

 ceived by appearances. 



The bees, we are erroneously told, search for wax 

 " upon all sorts of trees and plants, but especially 

 the rocket, the singular poppy, and in general all kinds 

 of flowers. They amass it with their hair, with 

 which their whole body is invested. It is something 

 pleasant to see th<>m roll in the yellow dust which 

 falls from the chives to the bottom of the flowers, 

 and then return covered with the same grains; but 

 their best method of gathering the wax, especially 

 when it is net very plentiful, is to carry away all the 

 little particles of it with their jaws and fore-feet, to 

 press the wax upon them into little pellets, and slide 

 them, one at a time, with their middle feet, into a 

 socket or cavity^ that opens at their hinder feet, and 

 serves to keep the burden fixed and steady till they 

 return home. They are sometimes exposed to incon - 

 veniences in this work by the motion of the air, and 

 the delicate texture of the flowers which bend under 

 their feet, and hinder them from packing up their 

 booty, on which occasions they fix themselves in some 

 steady place, where they press the wax into a mass, 

 and wind it round their legs, making frequent re- 

 turns to the flowers; and when they have stocked 

 themselves with a sufficient quantity, they imme- 

 diately repair to their habitation. Two men, in the 

 compass of a whole day, could not amass so much 

 as two little balls of wax; and yet they are no m )re 

 than the common burthen of a single bee, and the 

 produce of one journey. Those who are employed 



* Melisselogia, or Female Monarchy, 8vo., Lond. 1744, 



