OR, MANUAI< OF THE APIARY. 179 



thought, are questions yet to be settled. No comb necessitates 

 quiet. With us and all other higher animals, quiet and heavy 

 food-taking favors fat deposits. May not the same in bees 

 conduce to wax-production ? 



These wax-scales are loosened by the wax-jaws of the pos- 

 terior legs, carried to their anterior claws, which in turn bear 

 them to the mouth, where they are mixed with saliva probably 

 from Wolff's glands (Fig. 60), or mixed saliva. 



After the proper kneading by the jaws, these wax-scales are 

 fashioned into that wonderful and exquisite structure, the comb. 

 In this transformation to comb, the wax may become colored. 

 This is due to a slight admixture of pollen or old wax. It is 

 almost sure to be colored if the new comb is formed adjacent 

 to old, dark-colored comb. In such cases chippings from the 

 old soiled comb are used. 



Honey-comb is wonderfully delicate, the base of a new cell 

 being, according to Prof. C. P. Gillette, in worker-comb, be- 

 tween .0032 and .0064 of an inch, and the drone between .0048 

 and .008. The walls are even thinner, varying, he says, from 

 .0018 to .0028 of an inch. The cells are so formed as to com- 

 bine the greatest strength and maximum capacity with the 

 least expense of material. It need hardly be said that queen- 

 cells are much thicker, and contain, as before stated, much 

 that is not wax. In the arch-like pits in queen-cells, we 

 farther s^e how strength is conserved and material economized. 



Honey-comb has been an object of admiration since the 

 earliest time. Some claim that the form is a matter of neces- 

 sity — the result of pressure or reciprocal resistance and not of 

 bee-skill. The fact that the hexagonal form is sometimes 

 assumed just as the cell is started, when pressure or resistance 

 could not aid, has led me to doubt this view ; especially as 

 wasps form their paper nests of soft pulp, and the hexagonal 

 cells extend to the edge; where no pressure or resistance could 

 affect the form of the cells. Yet I am not certain that the 

 mutual resistance of the cells, as they are fashioned from the 

 soft wax, may not determine the form. Mullenhoff seems to 

 have proved that mutual resistance of the cells causes the 

 hexagonal form. The bees certainly carve out the triangular 

 pyramid at the base. They would need to be no better geome- 



