INSECTS 



39 



ready gorged themselves with honey, and it is estimated that from 

 seven to fifteen pounds of honey are required to produce one pound 

 of wax. As the little plates of wax are formed, they are seized by a 

 bee and carried with its mandibles or under its " chin " to the comb 

 where the building is going on. Here the wax is pressed against one 

 of the walls. 



- -honey 

 stomach 



air sac - - _ 



30. Honey making. While studying flowers we learned that 



they secrete a sweet liquid known as nectar. It is this that the 



workers use for 1 honey 



manufacture. The bee 



inserts into the blossom 



its sucking tongue and 



pumps up the nectar 



into a sac known as the 



honey stomach (Fig. 28). 



Here a kind of digestion 



takes place whereby the 



nectar is changed to 



honey. If the worker 



bee is hungry, it opens 



a little trapdoor and 



allows the honey and ing pore 



pollen to pass into the 



true stomach. But 

 since the insect usually 



makes more honey than 

 it can use, when it re- 

 turns to the hive it squeezes its tiny honey stomach and 

 deposits the surplus in the cells of the comb. This honey, when 

 first made, contains a good deal of water; it would there- 

 fore take up too much room in the comb and it would be 

 more likely to run out from the horizontal cells. Hence, some 

 of the workers fan with their wings and evaporate the surplus 

 water. When the cells are completely filled, they are capped 

 over with wax. 



FIG. 28. Internal organs of bee. (Lang.) 



