Circular No. 161. 



Issued October 4, 1912. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

 L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 



THE MANIPULATION OP THE WAX SCALES OF THE 

 HONEY BEE. 



By D. B. Casteel, Ph. D. 



Collahoratar; Adjunct Professor of Zoology, University of Texas. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The particular form of bee activity with which this paper deals 

 ■ is that which results in the removal of the wax scales from the bodies 

 of the worker bees and in the application to the comb of the wax 

 thus obtained. A detailed presentation of the facts will be given 

 and attention called to certain current conceptions of this process 

 which are in error. 



Since the bee is a very lively insect it is not surprising that the 

 bodily movements upon which some of its activities depend are 

 extremely difficult to follow and may easily be misunderstood. All 

 of its highly specialized legs may be used at once in the performance 

 of some intricate process, and the observer is in need of keenness of 

 ^ight and patience if he would gain more than an approximate 

 understanding' of the parts taken by the several members. 



In the m'ore permanent literature of apiculture and of zoology 

 will be found well-written accounts of the habits of bees, accounts 

 which are founded upon a large amount of careful observation and 

 which represent the work of many students of bees from the time 

 of Huber on. As the years have gone by, errors of sight and of 

 judgment have gradually been eliminated, so that at the present time 

 our knowledge of bee life, so far as it goes, rests upon a fairly 

 satisfactory foundation of authenticated facts. Yet many puzzling 

 questions are still unanswered, .and some supposed facts may still be 

 doubted. 



An examination of a number of bees from an active colony will 

 show great variation in the appearance of the wax scales of differ- 



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