8 



MANIPULATION OF WAX SCALES OF THE HONEY BEE. 



the mandibles are masticating it. After the scale has been thor- 

 oughly masticated the wax is applied to the comb. 



THE SCALE-REMOVING ORGAN, 



A point of particular interest in the process of wax scale removal 

 is that which deals with the manner in which the scale is grasped by 



the hind leg which removes it. As is 

 well known, each hind leg of the worker 

 bee bears a pincerslike structure — the 

 so-called wax shears — located at the 

 juncture of the tibia and the flattened 

 first tarsal segment or planta (fig. 7). 

 According to the statements of numer- 

 ous writers, the wax scales are grasped 

 between the edges of the supposed 

 pincers formed by the pecten above and 

 the auricle below, and are either snipped 

 off or are held by the jaws of the 

 pincers and thus drawn from the pock- 

 ets. Cowan's^ account may be given 

 as typical of others which are current 

 in the literature of apiculture and of 

 zoology. 



The articulation of the tibia and planta 

 being at the anterior angle, and the absence 

 of the spur on the tibia (which only the 

 honey bee does not possess) give the pecten a 

 freedom of action it would not otherwise have 

 and enable it to be used together with the 

 auricle on the planta, which is quite smooth, 

 as a true pair of pincers, and as an instru- 

 ment for laying hold of the thin flakes of 

 wax, and for bringing them forward to be 

 transferred by the' other legs to the jaws for 

 manipulation. 



As a matter of fact, the wax shears 

 have nothing whatever to do with the 

 removal of the wax scales. They per- 

 form an entirely different function, be- 

 ing concerned with the gathering of 

 pollen in a manner to be described in a 

 future paper. 



In coming to the above conclusions the writer was first convinced 

 that the so-called wax shears are not -used in removing scales by 

 noting that the position of the tibio-tarsal joint at the time of scale 



T/B/y4- 





^Lj4Nr> 





FiG. 7. — Inner surfape of the left 

 hiifa leg of a worker bee, show- 

 ing the position of a wax scale 

 Immediately after it has been re- 

 moved from the wax pocket. The 

 scale has been pierced by seven 

 of the spines of the pollen combs 

 of the first tarsal segment or 

 planta. The jaws of the so- 

 called wax shears or pincers are 

 formed by the pecten spines 

 above and the surface of the 

 auricle below. (Original.) 



1 Cowan, T. W., " The Honey Bee," 2d ed., London, 1904. 



