ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 161 
membrane, it is clear that they are formed by transu- 
dation through it and not through the connecting 
membrane, and are moulded on it. They are held in 
their place by the overlapping of the preceding scale, 
which makes a pocket divided down the middle by 
the horny line. And when they are required for use, 
the bee either shakes them out, or pulls them out 
with the wax-nippers which are formed on her hind 
legs between the tibia and first tarsal joint. 
Nothing of this kind is seen in wasps: the workers 
have no considerable accumulation of fat, and the 
ventral scales, though marked with a dark line down 
the middle, are not thinned away on either side to a 
membrane through which the fatty matter could be 
exuded as wax. Further, their food is not, as a rule, 
such as wax could be made from, and in short, they 
do not make wax. Some species of wasps, however, 
collect honey,* some of the Nectariniz, for instance, 
and the allied genus Myrapetra, store up a substance 
which has been called honey, in spare cells, and so, 
on a very small scale, does Polistes gallica. The 
substance, when dry, is described as dark brown and 
hard, quite unlike the usual contents of the cells of 
a honey-comb, more like jam, a child told me, than 
honey. By the kindness of Mr. E. Jesse I have been 
able to examine some of this substance from the cells 
of a comb of Nectarinia. It was said to have tasted 
sweet; when I had it the substance was hard, dark- 
coloured, and evidently consisted of pollen-granules 
and parts of the petals of flowers, pressed into a mass. 
* See Kirby and Spence. ‘Introduction to Entomology.’ 7th ed. 
p- 350. De Saussure. ‘ Monographie des Guépes Sociales,’ p. 232. 
Wood. ‘ Homes without Hands,’ p. 262. 
M 
