WAX, AND BEE ARCHITECTURE. 1 59 



clarified sugar syrup, the second dark brown moist 

 sugar syrup, and the third honey. The results, as 

 narrated, were remarkable, and I hope hereafter to 

 test them, for Huber states that, uniformly, during 

 seven consecutive deprivations of comb, the wax 

 secreted by those fed upon honey was far less than 

 that yielded by those receiving sugar, of which the 

 dark brown gave invariably the highest quantities of 

 wax; but these were subsequently equalled by maple 

 sugar. It was thus established, that saccharine matter 

 from the nectaries of flowers, as honey, or in any 

 other form, was capable of furnishing all the material 

 needed for the production of wax. But let us not 

 forget that comb building, even apart from the 

 salivary secretion needed to make the wax plastic, 

 demands muscular and nervous wear, both occasioning 

 a loss of nitrogenous matter and salts — especially 

 phosphates — and these cannot be made up by sugar> 

 which, as a heat and force-former, contains, like wax, 

 only hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Physiology and 

 prolonged experience alike, then, show that the effort 

 of comb building is terrifically exhausting to the bee, 

 unless pollen or a substitute is at command, in 

 addition to sugar syrup, or even honey. 



It is unusual, as previously observed, to find bees 

 in the summer season without traces of wax in the 

 abdominal pockets, but these are frequently so thin 

 and impalpable that microscopic dissections alone will 

 reveal them. I received by post, on October 22, 1885, 

 a single bee, with a request that I would determine 

 its sex; as it was supposed to be a queen ! I found 

 it in all, respects a genuine worker ; it revived by 



