82 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



The bees have also another contrivance for 

 saving wax. They form the bottoms and sides of 

 the cells of wax not thicker than writing paper ; 

 but as walls of this thinness at the entrance 

 would be perpetually injured by the going in and 

 out of the workers, they make the margin at the 

 opening of each cell three or four times thicker 

 than the walls. 



It has already been said that wax is a secretion 

 naturally formed in certain membranous bags in 

 the body of the bee. As the secretion goes on, 

 the wax oozes through the membrane, and forms 

 in thin plates on the outside. The position 

 adopted by the insects during this process is 

 strange and almost ridiculous. Their proceedings 

 are as follows : The wax-makers, having taken 

 a quantity of honey or sugar into the stomach, 

 suspend themselves to each other, the claws of 

 the fore legs of one being attached to those of the 

 hind pair of another, until they form themselves 

 into a cluster, consisting of a series of festoons or 

 garlands, which cross each other in all directions, 

 until they furm a dense curtain, and in which 



