§ VII.] SECRETION OF WAX. 303 



not therefore follow that pollen is not necessary for its 

 continued production. For, as already remarked, the 

 bees can prepare food for their young for a considerable 

 time without pollen, yet no one would assert that this is 

 unnecessary for the nourishment 'of the brood. In the 

 one case as the other the bees are sustained by a certain 

 store taken into themselves, but which by degrees be- 

 comes exhausted." To yield one pound of wax they 

 require to consume from thirteen to twenty pounds of 

 honey; so that it would seem as if honey was the food- 

 forming principle of the wax, and pollen the stimulant 

 that imparted to their own organs the capacity for effect- 

 ing the transformation. 



The bees, it need hardly be stated, elaborate this 

 secretion by clustering themselves in festoons and cur- 

 tains, in which they remain, the fore legs of one clasping 

 the hind ones of another, perfectly still for some twenty- 

 four hours, at the end of which time the scales are found 

 exuding around them, as mentioned in our earlier reference. 



The little plates of wax are withdrawn by the bee 

 itself with its hind feet, and carried to the mouth with its 

 fore feet, where the wax is made soft and ductile; 

 vigorous shakes of the body assist in detaching the 

 plates, and the floor-board is afterwards found covered 

 with the pieces that have fallen. One by one some of 

 them then leave the cluster and deposit their burdens in 

 rough masses, which are subsequently wrought by others 

 into the hexagonal form. But it seems feasible that the 



