322 THE INSECT WORLD. 
true nature of this secretion. This observer, who did not belong 
to any school, or at most belonged to Nature’s school, found the 
flakes of wax sticking between the lower arches of the rings of 





























































































































































Fig. 314.—Beehive in Leaves. 
the abdomen or belly of the working bee. The wax, then, is 
produced by the insect by exudation, and is not simply the pollen 

Vig. 815.—Bee seen through a magnifying glass at the moment when the plates of wax appear 
between the segments of the abdomen. 
gathered from flowers. Huber himself states that bees exclusively 
1ourished on pollen do not secrete wax, and that, on the contrary, 
they do furnish it when they eat saccharine matter. It is easy to 
