CONSTRUCTION OF COMBS. 



nated, and the elaborate process of kneading which it has under- 

 gone, have totally changed its mechanical properties and have 

 imparted to it that ductility and plasticity so eminently charac- 

 teristic of wax. It has also undergone other physical changes. 

 The laminae taken from the abdominal segments are colourless 

 and transparent, the substance into which they are converted 

 being white and opaque. 



73. The pieces of wax thus elaborated the insect applies against 

 the roof of the hive, arranging them with her mandibles in the 

 intended direction of the comb. She continues thus until she 

 has in this way applied the wax produced from the entire laminae, 

 when she takes in like manner another from her abdomen, treat- 

 ing it in the same way. After thus heaping together all the wax 

 which her organs have secreted, and causing it to adhere by its 

 proper tenacity to the vaults of the hive, she withdraws from her 

 work and is succeeded by another labourer who continues the 

 same operations, who is followed in a like manner by a third and 

 fourth, and so on, all disposing the produce of their labour in the 

 direction first intended to be given to the comb. 



74. Nevertheless it would seem that the curious facility by 

 which these proceedings are directed is not altogether unerring, for 

 it happens by chance now and then that one of the workers will 

 commit a mistake by placing the wax in the wrong direction. In 

 such cases, the worker which succeeds never fails to rectify the 

 error, removing the materials which are wrongly placed, and 

 disposing them in the proper direction. 



75. The result of all these operations of the wax-makers is the 

 construction of a rough wall of wax about half an inch long, a 

 sixth of an inch high, and the twenty-fourth of an inch thick, 

 which hangs vertically from the roof of the hive. In the first 

 rough work there is no angle nor the least indication of the 

 form of the cells. It is a mere straight and plain vertical parti- 

 tion of wax, roughly made, about the twenty-fourth of an inch 

 thick, and such as can only be regarded as the foundation of a 

 comb. 



76. The duty of the wax-makers terminating here, they are 

 succeeded by the nurses, who are the genuine artisans ; standing 

 in relation to the wax -makers in the same manner as, in the con- 

 struction of a building, the masons who work up the materials into 

 the form of the intended structure would to the common labourers. 

 One of the nurses commences its operation by placing itself hori- 

 zontally on the roof of the hive, with its head presented to the 

 wall of wax constructed by the wax-makers. This wall or 

 partition is intended to be converted into the system of pyramidal 

 bases of the cells already described, and accordingly the first 



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