THE MYRMIDONS 171 



twelve pounds of honey for the production of one 

 pound of wax ; others have put it at much less. 

 But the bee having been appointed worker in wax 

 rises to the occasion and brings in even more con- 

 structional ingenuity than the wasp. Her combs 

 are vertical, and that arrangement enables her to 

 build the cells not only with party walls side by 

 side, but with their bases abutting. They are 

 back-to-back habitations, and so mathematically 

 constructed that not only does the same amount 

 of material suffice for two cell bottoms, but less is 

 required for two than would be required for one. 

 The vertical double comb even in wax is a great 

 improvement on the horizontal single comb even 

 in wood. 



A still greater advantage that belongs to the 

 hive-bee springs in the first place from the nature 

 of its diet. The wasp eats, at any rate, in the 

 grub stage, aphides, caterpillars, flies and other 

 creatures that we are never grateful enough to her 

 for removing. It is a provender that will not 

 store, whepeas the nectar of flowers on which the 

 bee lives can by a skilful and cleanly confectioner 

 like the hive-bee (though not by the disorderly 

 humble-bee) be kept over the winter. The result 

 is well known. In the hive are preserved through 

 the winter not merely a queen but an army of 

 some ten thousand workers who, at the first turn 

 of the year, persuade the mother to lay eggs from 

 which to nourish fresh colleagues from the winter 

 store. Two months before the first humble-bee 



