282 



HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



humble-bees distinctly inferior to that of the hive-bee. 

 In the hive-bee the enlarged joint of the tarsus has the 

 bristles set in regular transverse rows, and their efficiency 

 in combing the hairs is thereby increased. In the humble- 

 bees no such arrangement can be discovered. 



Humble-bees employ wax rather spar- 

 ingly either to line the nest or in the con- 

 struction of their cells, and often mix it 

 with vegetable substances. Their wax is 

 made in much the same way as in the 

 hive-bee. The bee begins by taking a 

 good meal of honey. Shortly afterwards 

 wax begins to exude between the joints 

 on the under side of the abdomen and 

 also on the back. In the hive-bee the 

 wax is secreted in the form of rather large 

 thin plates, which can be detached by the 

 nipper, a kind of forceps formed by the 

 meeting of the tibia and tarsus of the hind 

 leg. In a humble-bee the wax is much 

 less coherent, and does not form plates 

 but a kind of dust ; no nipper is therefore 

 required to detach it. At the base of the 

 tarsus of the hind leg we find, in place 

 of the lower lip of the nipper, a short stiff 

 brush, which is apparently employed to 

 sweep out the granular wax as fast as it 

 is formed. Reaumur was mistaken in say- 

 ing that the wax of humble-bees is formed out of pollen, 

 and that it cannot be melted by heat ; no doubt he mis- 

 took for wax the lumps of pollen moistened with honey 

 which are so often found in the comb. 



Three, perhaps four kinds of bees can be found within 

 one nest in the height of summer. There are large 

 females which may be called queens ; perhaps also smaller 

 females whose unfertilised eggs regularly produce males ; 

 workers, which rarely lay eggs at all, and males or drones. 



FIG. 54. Right 



third leg of humble- 

 bee, side next the 

 body, magnified. 



