§ IV.] ABDOMEN AND SECRETIVE ORGANS. 103 



support. "A bee," says Dzierzon, "with the honey 

 which she can take into her stomach, is able to subsist 

 abundantly under some circumstances for longer than a 

 week, while under others she will die of hunger within 

 twenty-four hours. If we regard life as a process of 

 combustion, then with the bee it resembles at one time 

 the spark just glimmering in the ashes, at another the 

 bright up-bursting flame that in a few minutes consumes 

 the fuel, which to the barely glimmering fire would have 

 ensured nutrition for a much longer time." 



Wax is the animal fat of the bees, and to produce it 

 requires a considerable consumption of honey to supply 

 the drain upon the system. To be capable of passing 

 through the pores of the abdomen, the wax must no 

 doubt be a liquid oily matter, which, on making its 

 appearance outside the abdominal rings, thickens, and 

 exudes from under the four medial ones, in flakes like 

 fish-scales, one on each side ; so that there are eight of 

 these secreting cavities, which are peculiar to the worker, 

 not being 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. 6 w). No 

 direct channel of communication between the stomach 

 and these receptacles, or wax-pockets,- has as yet been 

 discovered; but Huber conjectures that the secreting 

 vessels are contained in the membrane which lines them, 

 and which is covered with a reticulation of hexagonal 



