88 AUSTRALASIAN 



wax when permanently deprived of bee-bread Some bee-bread 



is always found in the stomach of wax-producing workers, and they 

 never build comb so rapidly as when they have free access to that 

 article. It must therefore either furnish some of the elements of wax, 

 or in some way assist the bee in producing it. Further investigations 

 are necessary, before we can arrive at perfectly accurate results." 



He further points out the fact that, while honey and sugar 

 contain by weight about eight pounds of oxygen to one of 

 carbon and hydrogen, the wax contains only one pound of the 

 first to more than sixteen of the two latter ; and that, as the 

 combustion of oxygen is the great source of animal heat, the 

 great quantity consumed in the conversion of honey into wax 



Kg. 27. -UNDER SIDE OF ABDOMEN OF WORKER BEE, SHOWING 

 WAX POCKETS AND WAX SCALES. 



" must aid in generating the extraordinary heat which enables 

 the bees to mould the softened wax into such exquisitely deli- 

 cate and beautiful forms." The force of this observation will 

 be seen when we recollect that wax requires a temperature of 

 about 145° to melt it, though it may be moulded, by pressure, 

 at 100° or less. Is it not probable that the way in which 

 " bee-bread assists the bee in producing the wax," as Langstroth 

 expresses it, is that its nitrogenous qualities serve to keep up 

 the bodily strength of the insect during the exhansting work 



