102 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



projecting from a ring, and brought it forward to its 

 mouth with the claws of its fore-legs, Avhere it appeared 

 in a vertical position. We remarked that, with its claws, 

 it turned the wax in every necessary direction ; that the 

 edge of the scale was immediately broken down, and the 

 fragments having been accumulated in the hollow of the 

 mandibles, issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, impreg- 

 nated with a froth}^ liquid by the tongue. The tongue itself 

 assumed the most varied shapes, and executed the most 

 complicated operations, — being sometimes flattened like a 



Wax-worker laying the foundation of the first Cell. 



trowel, and at other times pointed like a pencil ; and, after 

 imbuing the whole substance of the ribbon, pushed it 

 forward again into the mandibles, whence it was drawn out 

 a second time, but in an opposite direction. 



" At length the bee applied these particles of wax to the 

 vault of the hive, where the saliva impregnating them 

 promoted their adhesion, and also communicated a white- 

 ness and opacity which were wanting when the scales 

 were detached from the rings. ' Doubtless this process 

 was to give the wax that ductility and tenacity belonging 

 to its perfect state. The bee then separated those por- 

 tions not yet applied to use with its mandibles, and with 

 the same organs afterwards arranged them at pleasure. 

 The founder bee, a name appropriated to this worker, 

 repeated the same operation, until all the fragments, worked 

 up and impregnated with the fluid, were attached to the 

 vault, when it repeated the preceding operations on the 

 part of the scale yet kept apart, and again united to the 

 rest what was obtained from it. A second and third scale 

 were similarly treated b}^ the same bee ; yet the work was 

 only sketched ; for the worker did nothing but accumulate 

 the particles of wax together. Meanwhile the founder, 



