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 generally 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 c , 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. 



h Encycloj). Britan. viii. 205. from Jowrn. de Phys. 



c VOL. II. p. 174. 



