WAX, AND BEE ARCHITECTURE. 



153 



tremity ; but if the abdomen be elongated by gentle 

 traction, we begin immediately to catch sight of ex- 

 tremely smooth and delicate expansions (W, W), upon 

 which, very generally, in the warm season, wax plates 

 of greater or less size and thickness may be dis- 

 covered. These pale yellow tender discs, which have 

 sometimes been called, quite incorrectly, the wax 

 glands, are eight in number, being found on the 



Fig. 32.— Abdominal Plate (Worker), Under Side, Third Segment 

 (Magnified Twenty times). 

 W, Wax-yielding Surface, covering True Gland ; s, Septem, or Carina ; ivh, Webbed 

 Hairs. 



four ventral plates intervening between the first and 

 last. They are surrounded and held in position by 

 a frame-like thickening of the plate itself (Fig. 32), 

 while between them runs a septem, or carina (s). 

 The contour of the membranes determines the form 

 of the wax scales, which are moulded upon their 

 surfaces as the secretion passes, by osmose from the 

 true glands beneath. The hinder part of each 



O 



