ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE. 29 1 



The abdominal scales of the bees were, by means of the 

 wax, distinctly raised, so that the waxen laminae pro- 

 jected between them. On examination, I found that these 

 thick laminae, which under the microscope exhibited sev- 

 eral lamellae, had a sloping surface downwards near the 

 head, and upwards in the vicinity of the tail. The first 

 waxen lamina, therefore, must have been pushed down- 

 wards by the second, because, where the abdominal 

 scales are attached to the skin, there is no space for two 

 laminae, the second by the third, and thus the inclined sur- 

 faces on the sides of the thick laminae had been produced. 

 I saw distinctly from this, that the first-formed laminae are 

 detached by those which follow. The sugar had been 

 converted into wax by the bees, but it would seem that 

 there was some imperfection in the process, as the laminae 

 did not fall off, but adhered to the succeeding ones. 



In order to produce wax in the manner described, the 

 bees require no pollen, but only honey. I have placed, 

 even in October, bees in an empty hive, and fed them 

 with honey; they soon formed comb, although the weather 

 was such that they could not leave the hive. I cannot, 

 therefore, believe that pollen furnishes food for the bees, 

 but I think they only swallow it in order, by mixing it 

 with honey and water, to prepare the liquid food for the 

 grubs. Besides, bees often starve in April, when their 

 stock of honey is consumed, and when they can obtain in 

 the fields abundance of pollen, but no honey. When 

 pressed by hunger, they tear the nymphae out of the cells, 

 and gnaw them in order to support life by the sweet juice 

 which they contain. But, if in this condition they are 

 not artificially fed, or if the fields do not soon yield their 



