Honey-Sac and Wax-Pockets 87 



The worker-bee lias six abdominal rings, each composed 

 of several pieces, one being on the under side and forming 

 a broad curved plate. The part of each plate on the sec- 

 ond, third, fourth and fifth rings overlapped by the pre- 

 ceding ring is smooth and light colored, and a httle sunken 

 so that it forms a shallow well ; and when 

 overlapped by the edge of the plate above 

 is the so-called wax-pocket. The tissue 

 inside the bee, beneath these depressions, y^-^::^s^.g. 

 is glandular in structure and secretes a 

 liquid which exudes through the plate to 

 the outer surface, where it hardens into a 

 thin transparent scale of wax. These tiny scales are 

 sometimes pushed down by exudations of the wax fluid 

 above, and during the period of most active secretion may 

 often be seen extending partly over the plate below. As 

 the wax forms it is taken as needed from the pockets by 

 the wax-jaws on the last pair of legs and conveyed to the 

 mouth, where it is moulded and mixed with saliva to a 

 consistency and form suitable to comb building. Bee- 

 keepers have often tried to find a substitute for wax, but 

 their artificial products have never been successful, the 

 paraffine and other materials used lacking the necessary 

 consistency and power to resist heat and breaking down 

 in the hive, even when the bees can be induced to use 

 them. 



The bee consumes vast quantities of honey at certain 

 seasons ; but instead of growing fat thereon, it gives forth 

 wax. Wax is a very costly product, the bees using from 

 ten to sixteen pounds of honey to produce one pound 

 of it. 



Honey and wax have been used as medicine from the 

 earliest times, and wax was the foundation of plasters in 

 past ages. 



