ANIMAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL LIFE 151 
rical cells is accomplished by the workers by means of their 
specially modified trowel-like mandibles or jaws. The wax 
itself, of which the cells are made, comes from the bodies 
of the workers in the form of small 
liquid drops which exude from the skin 
on the under side of the abdomen or 
hinder body rings. These droplets 
run together, harden and become flat- 
tened, and are removed from the wax 
plates, as the peculiarly modified parts 
of the skin which produce the wax 
are called, by means of the hind legs, 
which are furnished with scissor-like 
contrivances for cutting off the wax 
(Fig. 89). In certain of the cells are 
stored the pollen and honey, which 
serve as food for the community. The 
pollen is gathered by the workers from 
certain favorite flowers and is carried 
by them from the flowers to the hive 
in the “pollen baskets,” the slightly 
concave outer surfaces of one of the 
segments of the broadened and flattened 
hind legs. This concave surface is lined 
on each margin with a row of incurved 
stiff hairs which hold the pollen mass 
securely in place (Fig. 89). The“ honey ” 
is the nectar of flowers which has been 
sucked up by the workers by means of 
their elaborate lapping and sucking 
mouth parts and swallowed into a sort 
of honey-sac or stomach, then brought 
to the hive and regurgitated into the 
Fic. 89.—Posterior leg of 
worker honey-bee. The 
concave surface of the 
upper large joint with 
the marginal hairs is 
the pollen basket ; the 
wax shears are the cut- 
ting surfaces of the 
angle between the two 
large segments of the 
leg. 
cells. This nectar is at first too watery to be good ~ 
honey, so the bees have to evaporate some of this water. 
Many of the workers gather above the cells containing 
