118 Insect Architecture. 



The celebrated John Hunter shrewdly remarked that the 

 pellets of pollen seen on the thighs of bees are of different 

 colours on different bees, while the shade of the new-made 

 comb is always uniform ; and therefore he concluded that 

 pollen was not the origin of wax. Pollen also, he observed, 

 is collected with greater avidity for old hives, where the 

 comb is complete, than for those where it is only begun, 

 which would hardly be the case were it the material of wax. 

 He found that when the weather was cold and wet in 

 June, so that a young swarm was prevented from going 

 abroad, as much comb was constructed as had been made 

 in an equal time when the weather was favourable and 

 fine. 



The pellets of pollen on the thighs being thence proved 

 not to be wax, he came to the conclusion that it was an 

 external secretion, originating between the plates of the belly. 

 When he first observed this, he felt not a little embarrassed 

 to explain the phenomenon, and doubted whether new plates 

 were forming, or whether bees cast their old ones as lobsters 

 do their shell. By melting the scales, he ascertained at least 

 that they were wax ; and his opinion was confirmed by the 

 fact, that the scales are only to be found during the season 

 when the combs are constructed. But he did not succeed in 

 completing the discovery by observing the bees actually 

 detach the scales, though he conjectured they might be taken 

 up by others, if they were once shaken out from between the 

 rings. * 



We need not be so much surprised at mistakes committed 

 upon this subject, when we recollect that honey itself was 

 believed by the ancients to be an emanation of the air a dew 

 that descended upon flowers, as if it had a limited commission 

 to fall only on them. The exposure and correction of error is 

 one of the first steps to genuine knowledge ; and when we are 

 aware of the stumbling-blocks which have interrupted the 

 progress of others, wo can always travel more securely in the 

 way of truth. 



That wax is secreted is proved both by the wax-pouches 

 * Philosophical Trans, for 1792, p. 143. 



