COMB. 99 



gether, that the wax between them, beyoud the rim, is almost 

 as thin as a tissue paper." — (''A B C of Bee Culture.") 



207. It is very difficult to ascertain who first discovered 

 these scales of wax. According to Mr. S. Wagner, J, A. 

 Overbeck, in his Glossarium Melliturgium, p. 89, Bremen, 

 1765, claims that a Hanoverian pastor, named Herman C. 

 Honibostel, described them in the Hamburg Library, about 

 1745. Mr. L. Stachelhausen informed us that they were men- 

 tioned by Martin John in Ein Neu Bienenhuchel, 1691. 



They were also discovered, m Germany, by a farmer. This 

 discover^' was communicated to the naturalist Bonnet by Wil- 

 lelmi, under the date of Aug-ust 22, 1765. (Huber.) 



In 1779, Thos. Wildman had noticed the scales of wax on 

 the abdomen of the workers; and he was so thoroughly con- 

 vinced that wax was secreted from honey, that he recommended 

 feeding new sw;arms, when the weather is stormy, that they 

 may sooner build comb for the eggs of the queen. 



From the books wi'itten in the French language, it seems 

 that it was Duchet, who, in his "Culture des Abeilles," printed 

 in Freiburg in 1771, wrote first that beeswax is produced from 

 honey, of which they eat a large quantitj', "icliich is cooked in 

 their bodies, as in a stove/' increasing thereby the waraith of 

 the hive, and that beeswax '' exudes out of this stove'' through 

 the rings of their body which are near the corselet. This idea 

 of Duchet led Beaunier to examine bees, and he discovered 

 that they produce, at one time, not two scales of wax only, 

 but nine, the last ring having seemed to produce one. He 

 adds : 



208. * ' To employ this material, bees use their jaws, their 

 tongues, and their antennae. In favorable years you can see 

 a great quantity of these pieces of wax which have fallen on 

 the bottom of the hives." — ('^Traite sur 1 'Education des 

 Abeilles," Vendome, 1808.) 



209. TMien bees are building combs, some scales of wax 

 are often found on the bottom board, the bees having been 

 unable to use them before they became too tough. Sometimes 

 they pick them up afterwards and use them ; some races of 



