222 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



When the swarming is to take place, and should 

 the young queen emerge before the old queen 

 leaves, the workers have to protect the new queen 

 from the old one. 



The workers, besides manufacturing wax and 

 honey from the nectar of flowers, and "bee bread" 

 from mixed pollen and honey, also prepare a resin- 

 ous material with which they line the nest, and fill 

 in cracks and smooth roughnesses in the hive. 



The Native Honey Bee (Trigona) builds a nest 

 of wax cells, but it is not so finished nor so well 

 regulated as that of the hive bee. 



The nest is made in a hollow tree, often with 

 only a small opening. The one we observed had an 

 opening whose diameter was about ij inches. This 

 tree was seen at Killara, and was struck by light- 

 ning; it was cut down and on being- sawn for 

 firewood the nest was discovered and observed at 

 leisure. The tree trunk was about a foot in diam- 

 eter: the roughness of the hollow in the tree was 

 smoothed by a deposition of wax which formed a 

 lining to the hole. The hollow extended on either 

 side of the opening, and the honey cells were at 

 either end — innermost. These cells were smooth, 

 irregularly rounded, and about the size of marbles. 

 Most of them were joined together to form a solid 

 mass, and some on the outer side of the mass were 

 joined to the walls by long slender stalks of wax (see 

 Plate 27, Fig. i), varying from ^4 to ijins. in length. 

 Some of the larger honey cells were a little isolated 

 and joined to the main mass by stalks of wax, but 

 probably they formed the foundation cells for others. 



