ANATOMY OF THE BEE. 45 



ventricle or true stomach, which is somewhat larger. This 

 receives the food from the honey-bag, for the nourish- 

 ment of the bee and the secretion of wax. The stomach, 

 like the honey-bag, has a considerable number of muscles, 

 which are brought into play to help the digestive and 

 other organs. The biliary vessels (Plate II., figs, i and 

 2, h,h) receive the chyle from the digested food in the 

 stomach, which from thence is conveyed to all parts of 

 the body for its support. 



Formerly, naturalists thought that wax was elaborated 

 from pollen ; but it is now fully known that it is the ani- 

 mal fat of the bees, and to produce it requires a con- 

 siderable consumption of honey to supply the drain upon 

 the system. Whilst this secretion is going on, bees keep 

 themselves very still. In order to pass through the pores 

 of the abdomen, the wax is, no doubt, a liquid oily matter, 

 which, on making its appearance outside the abdominal 

 rings, thickens, and exudes from under the four medial 

 rings, in flakes like fish scales, one on either side ; so that 

 there are eight of these secreting cavities, which are 

 peculiar to the worker : they are not found either in the 

 queen or drone. The shape of these cavities is that of 

 an irregular pentagon, and the plates of wax, being 

 moulded in them, exhibit accordingly the same form 

 (see Plate II., fig. S, w). 



No direct channel of communication between the 

 stomach and these receptacles, or wax-pockets, has yet 

 feeen discovered ; but Huber conjectures that the secret- 



