Wax-workers, 



237 



water, to escape the furv of the resentful bees he had disturbed, lii Murray's Hand- 

 book fov India, travehers visiting the caves of Ellora and Ajanta are advised to supply 

 themselves with " a pair of stout leather gauntlets coming up above the wrist 

 halfway to the elbow, and a light wire mask with a backpiece to protect the back 

 of the head and neck, many persons having been so badly stung that in some cases 

 death has ensued." Attempts have been made to domesticate the dingar, but 

 they have failed. 



So extensive a literature exists uj^on the honev-bee that it would be idle 

 to attempt to enter into details of its economy here ; we will only consider it as 

 a wax-worker. The production of this wax bv the worker-bees does not go on 

 whilst thev are out collecting honey or ]v)ll(^n, or whilst thev are attending to the 

 brood in the hi\e. It is a distinct 

 employment, and a number of 

 workers appear to be temporarily 

 charged with this function apart 

 from other duties, and it takes them 

 twenty-four hours to convert the 

 honey eaten into the plates of crude 

 wax. A peculiar rite appears to be 

 essential for tlu' carrying out of this 

 wax production, though why it is 

 necessary is not e\'ident. The bees 

 have to hang in festoons attached to 

 each other b\- the feet only. When 

 wax is needed these festoons depend 

 from the roof of the hive wherever 

 there is room for them. A festoon 

 is formed in this wise : a couple of 

 bees station themselves apart, each 

 clinging to the roof by its fore-feet 

 onl\' ; another bee will with its fore- 

 claws cling to the hind-feet of the 

 first one, and so on in the same manner 

 until two hanging chains of bees arc 

 formed. Then the two bottom ones cause the cluiins to swint; until they 

 can hook their hinder feet together to form a leslooii. So the\ hang lor 

 about twenty-four hours, when the festoon break- up and the bees whieh composed 

 it resort to the cell-makers, and sup))l\- them with the material for their work. 

 When the wax-secreting worker has broui^ht the thin plates from her abdominal 

 rings to her jaws and manipulati'd them into true hee>\\a.\ as we know it, it issues 

 from the mouth as a thin strij) which i> brought to the c-ell-makers and applied by 

 them to the walls of the cells now uiuler ((instruction, a work that is carried on 

 with great rapidity. 



As stated, a considerable amount ot hone\' is coincrted into only a snudl 

 cpuintitv of wax, and therefore the workers use it with parsimony. There is no 



Ini-. PKoiJuenuiN en-' \\'.-\\. 



A wolkrr-brc 

 uihIit side. 



(■[ij^agcd ill ihc production of wax is sci-ii lu-rc from the 

 rill- wax issm-s in thin platos bitw'on the ovi riapping 

 x-giiKiits of the liind-lKidy. A wax-inaUcr has to consume from sixteen 

 to twenty poiiink of honey in order to produei; one pound of wax. 



