VOL. LXXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. l65 



their legs was farina, intended, as appeared from every circumstance, to be the 

 food of the maggot, and not to make wax ; and not having yet perceived any 

 thing that could give me the least idea of wax; I conceived these scales might be 

 it, at least I thought it necessary to investigate them. I therefore took several 

 on the point of a needle, and held them to a candle, where they melted, and 

 immediately formed themselves into a round globe; on which I no longer doubted 

 that this was the wax, which opinion was confirmed by not finding those scales 

 but in the building season. In the bottom of the hive we see a good many of 

 the scales lying loose, some pretty perfect, others in pieces. I have endeavoured 

 to catch them, either taking this matter out of themselves, from between the 

 scales of the abdomen, or from each other, but never could satisfy myself in 

 this respect: however, I once caught a bee examining between the scales of the 

 belly of another, but I could not find that it took any thing from between. We 

 very often see some of the bees wagging their belly, as if tickled, running round,, 

 and to and fro, for only a little way, followed by one or two other bees, as if 

 examining them. I conceived they were probably shaking out the scales of wax, 

 and that the others were ready on the watch to catch them, but I could not 

 absolutely determine what they did. It is with these scales that they form the 

 cells called the comb, but perhaps not entirely, for I believe they mix farina with 

 it; however this only occasionally, when probably the secretion is not in great 

 plenty. I have some reason to think that where no other substance is intro- 

 duced, the thickness of the scale is the same with that of the sides of the comb; 

 if so, then a comb may be no more than a number of these united; but a great 

 deal of the comb seems to be too thick for this, and indeed would appear to be 

 a mixture, similar to the covering of the chrysalis. The wax naturally is white, 

 but when melted from the comb at large, it is yellow. I apprehended this might 

 arise from its being stained with honey, the excrement of the maggots, and with 

 the bee-bread. I steeped some white comb in honey, boiled some with farina, as 

 also with old comb, but I could not say that it was made yellower. Wax, by 

 bleaching, is brought back to its natural colour, which is also a proof that its 

 colour is derived from some mixture. I have reason to believe that they take the 

 old comb, when either broken down, or by any accident rendered useless, and 

 employ it again; but this can only be with combs that have had no bees hatched 

 in them, for the wax cannot be separated from the silk afterwards. Reaumur 

 supposed that they new worked up the old materials, because he found the 

 covering of the chrysalis of a yellower colour than the other parts of the new 

 comb; but this is always so, whether they have old yellow comb to work up, or 

 not, as will be shown. The bees which gather the farina, also form the wax, 

 for I found it between their scales. 



The cells, or rather the congeries of cells, which compose the comb, may be 



