Sive-Bees. 



137 



were attached to the vault, when it repeated the preceding 

 operations on the part of the scale yet kept apart, and again 

 united to the rest what was obtained from it. A second and 

 third scale were similarly treated by the same bee ; yet the 

 work was only sketched ; for the worker did nothing but 

 accumulate the particles of wax together. Meanwhile the 

 founder, quitting its position, disappeared amidst its corn- 



Curtain of Wax-workers (see p. 132). 



panions. Another, with wax under the rings, succeeded it, 

 which suspending itself to the same spot, withdrew a scale 

 by the pincers of the hind legs, and passing it through its 

 mandibles, prosecuted the work and taking care to make its 

 deposit in a line with the former, it united their extremities. 

 A third worker, detaching itself from the interior of the 

 cluster, now came and reduced some of the scales to paste, 



