80 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



of architecture now before iis. By minute research, he 

 ascertained that the workers which had been considered by 

 former naturalists to be all alike, are divided into two 

 important classes, nurse-bees and wax-makers. 



The nurse-bees are rather smaller than the wax-workers, 

 and even when gorged with honey their belly does not, as 

 in the others, appear distended. Their business is to collect 

 honey, and impart it to their com23anions ; to feed and take 

 care of the young grubs, and to complete the combs and 

 cells which have been founded by the others ; but they are 

 not charged with provisioning the hive. 



The wax-workers, on the other hand, are not only a little 

 larger, but their stomach, when gorged with honey, is 

 capable of considerable distention, as M. Huber jDroved by 

 repeated experiments. He also ascertained that neither of 

 the species can alone fulfil all the functions shared among 

 the workers of a hive. He painted those of each class with 

 different colours, in order to study their proceedings, and 

 their labours were not interchanged. In another experi- 

 ment, after supplying a hive deprived of a queen with.brood 

 and pollen, he saw the nurse-bees quickly occupied in the 

 nutrition of the grubs, while those of the wax-working class 

 neglected them. When hives are full of combs, the wax- 

 workers disgorge their honey into the ordinary magazines, 

 making no wax : but if they want a reservoir for its recep- 

 tion, and if their queen does not find cells ready made 

 wherein to lay her eggs, they retain the honey in the 

 stomachj and in twenty-four hours they produce wax. Then 

 the labour of constructing combs begins. 



It might perhaps be supposed that, when the country 

 does not afford honey, the wax-workers consume the provi- 

 sion stored up in the hive. But they are not permitted to 

 touch it. A portion of honey is carefully preserved, and 

 the cells containing it are protected by a waxen covering, 

 which is never removed except in case of extreme necessity, 

 and when honey is not to be otherwise procured. The cells 

 are at no time opened during summer ; other reservoirs, 

 always exposed, contribute to the daily use of the com- 

 munity; each bee, however, supplying itself from them 



