INSECTS HYMENOPTERA DIAGRAM 6. 137 



other. In each space we find a slender flake of wax which 

 gathers there, and is secreted by the skin, like perspiration with 

 us. The bees remove these flakes with their legs, and form 

 combs of them, by building and moulding the wax with their 

 mandibles. Each comb is composed of two rows of openings, or 

 cclh connected at their base. These cells are always very 

 regular in shape ; and they have six sides separating them from 

 the six .surrounding cells. All the bees work together to build 

 the comb, which increases gradually at the edges ; it is always 

 vertical, so that the cells are hollowed horizontally on its two 

 faces. The provision brought home by the bees on their legs is 

 therefore not used to construct combs, for it is not wax, but is 

 employed for another purpose. The workers make a paste of it 

 with which they stop up any holes which may exist in the hive ; 

 the}" plaster up the places where it does not stand even on the 

 plank, so as to keep out draughts, and leave no opening beyond 

 that required for an entrance. When this entrance is larger 

 than they like, they reduce its size with the same plaster, which 

 is called propolis. It is also used for another purpose ; if a large 

 caterpillar, or butterfly, as sometimes happens, penetrates into 

 the hive ; and they cannot throw it out after killing it, they 

 cover it with propolis, and make a kind of tomb over it, which 

 prevents them from being inconvenienced by the putrefaction of 

 the corpse. 



Bees do not make honey, but simply collect it from flowers 

 for it is the sugared nectar which these contain. They take as 

 much as possible and swallow it, but it is not digested ; and on 

 reaching the hive, they disgorge it, either to feed the larvae, of 

 which they have the charge, or to store it up in the cells, for 

 food during the winter, when the flower season is over. All the 

 honey which we use is only the winter provision of the bees 

 which we appropriate to ourselves. As honey is only the nectar 

 of flowers, it is better in proportion as the flowers in the 

 neighbourhood of the hive are more odoriferous ; whence it 

 follows that there are different qualities of honey. 



