ON ENTOMOLOGY. .'}/> 



returned to the group. We were now struck with the absolute repose, 

 of the hive contrasted with the usual agitation of Bees : meanwhile the 

 nurse Bees alone went to forage in the country, they returned with pollen, 

 kept guard at the entrance of the hive, cleansed it, and stopped up its 

 edges with propolis. The wax-workers remained motionless above 

 fifteen hours ; the curtain of Bees consisting always of the same indivi- 

 duals, assured us that none replaced them. Some hours later we 

 remarked, that almost all these individuals had wax scales under the 

 wings, and next day this phenomenon was still more general. The 

 Bees forming the external layer of the cluster, having now somewhat 

 altered their position, enabled us to see their bellies distinctly. By the 

 projection of the wax scales the wings seemed edged with white ; the 

 curtain of Bees became rent in several places, and some commotion began 

 to be observed in the hive. Convinced that the combs would originate 

 in the centre of the swarm, our whole attention was then directed 

 towards the roof of the glass ; a worker at this time detached itself from 

 the crowd, and with its head drove away the Bees at the beginning of the 

 row in the middle of the arch, turning round to form a space, an inch or 

 more in diameter, in which it might move freely : it then fixed itself in 

 the centre of the space thus cleared. The worker now employing the 

 pincers at the joint of one of the third pair of its limbs, seized a scale of 

 wax projecting from a ring and brought it forward to its mouth with the 

 claws of its fore legs, where it appeared in a vertical position. We 

 remarked, that with its claws it turned the wax in every necessary 

 direction, that the edge of the scale was immediately broken down, and 

 the fragments having been accumulated in the hollow of the mandibles, 

 issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, impregnated with a frothy liquid 

 by the tongue. The tongue itself assumed the most varied shapes, and 

 executed the most complicated operations, being sometimes flattened 

 like a trowel, and at other times pointed like a pencil, and after im- 

 buing the whole substance of the ribbon, pushed it forward again into 

 the mandibles, whence it was drawn out a second time, but in an oppo- 

 site direction. At length the Bee applied these particles of wax to the 

 vault of the hive, where the saliva impregnating them, promoted their 

 adhesion, and also communicated a whiteness and opacity which were 

 wanting when the scales were detached from the rings. Doubtless this 

 process was to give the wax that ductility and tenacity belonging to its 

 perfect state. The Bee then separated with its mandibles those portions 

 not yet applied to use, and with the same organs afterwards arranged 

 them at pleasure. The founder Bee, a name appropriated to this worker, 

 repeated the same operations, until all the fragments worked up and 

 impregnated with the fluid were attached to the vault, when it repeated 

 the preceding operations on the part of the scale yet kept apart, and 

 again united to the rest what was obtained from it. A second and a 

 third scale were similarly treated by the same Bee, yet the work was 



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