124 Insect Architecture. 



cular rings, and from one end to the other very much re- 

 sembles a cask covered with hoops. It is within these rings 

 that the wax is produced ; but the secreting vessels for this 

 purpose have hitherto escaped the researches of the acutest 

 naturalists. Huber, however, plausibly enough conjectures 

 that they are contained in the internal lining of the wax- 

 pockets, which consists of a cellular substance reticulated 

 with hexagons. The wax-pockets themselves, which are 

 concealed by the overlapping of the rings, may be seen by 

 pressing the abdomen of a worker-bee so as to lengthen it, 

 and separate the rings further from each other. When this 



Abdomen of Wax-worker Bee. 



has been done, there may be seen on each of the four inter- 

 mediate hoops of the belly, and separated by what may be 

 called the keel (carina), two whitish-coloured pouches, of a 

 soft texture, and in the form of a trapezium. Within, the 

 little plates or scales of wax are produced from time to time, 

 and are removed and employed as we shall presently see. 

 We may remark, that it is chiefly the wax-workers which 

 produce the wax; for though the nurse-bees are furnished 

 with wax-pockets, they secrete it only in very small quan- 

 tities ; while in the queen-bee, and the males or drones, no 

 pockets are discoverable. 



