THE BEE. 



represented in this act in fig. 31. Having fixed a secure hold on 

 the lamina, it carries it by its feet from the abdomen to its mouth, 

 where it is taken by one of the fore-legs which holds it vertically 

 while the tongue rolled up serves for a support, and by raising 

 and depressing at will, causes the whole circumference to be 

 brought successively under the action of the mandibles (fig. 32), 

 so that the margin is soon ground into pieces. These pieces fall 

 gradually as they are detached in the double cavity of the 

 mandibles which are bordered with hair. 



Fig. 31. 



B 



The mandibles or jaws which execute this process open in a 

 horizontal, instead of a vertical, direction as in the case of the 

 superior animals, and have a form resembling that of a pair of 

 shears or scissors. 



72. The fragments of the laminae thus divided falling on either 

 side of the mouth, and pressed together into a compact mass, 

 issue from it in the form of a very narrow ribbon. This ribbon 

 is then presented to the tongue by which it is impregnated with 

 a frothy liquor, which has the same effect upon it as water has 

 on potter's earth in the formation of porcelain paste. That this 

 process, by which the raw material of the wax is worked and 

 kneaded, is an extremely elaborate and artificial one, is rendered 

 apparent by observing carefully the manoeuvres of the bee's tongue 

 in the process. Sometimes that organ assumes the form of a 

 spatula, or apothecary's knife, sometimes it takes the form of a 

 mason's trowel, and sometimes that of a pencil tapering to a point, 

 never ceasing to work upon the ribbon which is being evolved 

 from the mouth in these several forms. 



After the ribbon has been thus thoroughly impregnated with 

 moisture, and carefully kneaded, the tongue again pushes it 

 between the mandibles, but in a contrary direction to that in w^.ich 

 it previously passed, when the whole is worked up anew. 



The substance is now converted into true wax, the characteristic 

 properties of which it has acquired in this process. The. material 

 evolved in laminae from the segments of the abdomen is brittle 

 and friable, and would be as unfit for the structure of the comb 

 as dry potter's earth would be for the formation of a vase. The 

 liquid secreted from the mouth., with which it has been impreg- 

 36 



