A CRIPPLED OUEEN 261 



largest, and, after removal, made a ball of wax 

 in. in diameter. Only about one-third of this 

 quantity had exuded from the base of the 4th 

 segment ; the amount at the base of the 3rd segment 

 was equal to the amount at the base of the 4th, 

 while the quantity at the base of the 6th segment 

 was very much less, and I computed it to be about 

 one-tenth of what had oozed from the base of the 

 3rd segment. The 2nd segment on the left and the 

 under side of the abdomen on the left were greasy, 

 but they bore no wax. 



I mention the quantities of wax as accurately as 

 I was able to estimate them, because I think that 

 they probably represent the proportion of wax that 

 exudes from between each segment in a normal 

 queen. It will have been noticed that the quantity 

 given off between the 4th and 5th segments 

 was greater than the total quantity from all the 

 other segments. This is the part of the abdomen that 

 is most easily reached by the brushes on the hind 

 metatarsi, which no doubt are used to remove the 

 wax, for in a queen that had one of her hind meta- 

 tarsi slightly paralysed the brush on it was covered 

 with wax. 



The fact- that my A queen, having lost her 

 left hind tibia, had been able to keep the right side 

 of her abdomen clean shows that the wax is not 

 removed from the metatarsal brush by the tibial 

 comb and passed on to the corbicula like the pollen. 

 How, then, was it removed from the metatarsal brush 

 in this case ? At the apical end of the metatarsal 



