INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 141 
argument may be deduced from the circumstance of the 
bees imbibing the juices of fruits of various kinds as they 
are well known to do a . It seems therefore evident that 
the honey collected by bees undergoes some modifica- 
tion in their honey-stomach before it is regurgitated 
into the cells, and therefore may be regarded in some 
degree as a peculiar secretion. 
Huber says that he has ascertained by a great num- 
ber of observations that electricity is singularly favour- 
able to the secretion of the substance of which honey is 
formed by flowers ; the bees never collect it in greater 
abundance, nor is the formation of wax ever more active, 
than when the wind is in the south, the air humid and 
warm, and a storm gathering b . 
viii. Wax generallv transpires through the pores of 
the skin of those insects that produce it, either partially 
or generally, and it is secreted from honey or other sac- 
charine substances taken into the stomach. In the 
hive-bee, as has been before stated, it is produced par- 
tially , but in many other insects it is a general transu- 
dation of the body. This is particularly the case with 
a large number of the Homopterous Hemiptera : and 
those flocoons that look like cotton, and cover the body 
of several Chermes and Aphides, if closely examined will 
be found of the nature of wax : this I have particularly 
noticed with respect to Chermes Fagi, in which the cot- 
ton-like flocoons are often so long as to cause the insect 
to look like a feather, and a leaf covered by them exhi- 
bits a very singular appearance, as if clothed with the 
* Vol. I. p. 196. II. p. 176. 
b Encyclvp. Britan. viii. 205. from Journ. de Phys. 
c Vol. II. p. 174. 
