INSECTS HYMENOPTERA DIAGRAM 6. 137 



bell glass covered by a basket hive ; it is enough to remove this 

 to follow all the details of their life and labours. Bees make 

 the wax themselves. When we take hold of one, we see that 

 the segments of the abdomen overlap, and partly cover each 

 other. In each space we find a slender flake of wax which 

 gathers there, and is secreted by the skin, like perspiration with 

 us. The bees remove these flakes with their legs, and form combs 

 of them by building and moulding the wax with their mandibles. 

 Each comb is composed of two rows of openings, or cells, connected 

 at their base. These cells are always very regular in shape ; and 

 they have six sides separating them from the six surrounding 

 cells. All the bees work together to build the comb, which 

 increases gradually at the edges ; it is always vertical, so that the 

 cells are hollowed horizontally on its two faces. The provision 

 brought home by the bees on their legs is therefore not used to 

 construct combs, for it is not wax, but is employed for another 

 purpose. The workers make a paste of it, with which they stop up 

 any holes which may exist in the hive ; they plaster up the places 

 where it does not stand even on the plank, so as to keep out 

 draughts, and leave no opening beyond that required for an 

 entrance. When this entrance is larger than they like, they 

 reduce its size with the same plaster, which is called propolis. It 

 is also used for another purpose ; if a large caterpillar or 

 butterfly, as sometimes happens, penetrates into the hive, and 

 they cannot throw it out after killing it, they cover it with 

 propolis, and make a kind of tomb over it, which prevents them 

 from being inconvenienced by the putrefaction of the corpse. 



Bees do not make honey, but simply collect it from flowers ; 

 honey being the sugared nectar found in the flowers. They take 

 as much as possible and swallow it, but it is not digested ; and on 

 reaching the hive, they disgorge it, either to feed the larvae, of 

 which they have the charge, or to store it up in the cells for 

 food during the winter, when the flower season is over. All the 

 honey which we use is only the winter provision of the bees, 

 which we appropriate to ourselves. As honey is only the nectar 



