276 HABITATYONS OF INSECTS, 
next seizes one of the laminz of wax with a pincer formed by the posterior 
metatarsus and tibia’, and drawing it from beneath the abdominal segment, 
one of the anterior legs takes it with its claws and carries it to the mouth, 
This leg holds the lamina with its claws vertically, the tongue rolled up 
serving for a support, and, by elevating or depressing it at will, causes the 
whole of its circumference to be exposed to the action of the mandibles, 
so that the margin is soon gnawed into pieces, which drop as they are de- 
tached into the double cavity, bordered with hairs, of the mandibles, 
These fragments, pressed by others newly separated, fall on one side of the 
mouth, and issue from it in the form of a very narrow riband. They are 
then presented to the tongue, which impregnates them with a frothy liquor 
like a bouillie, During this operation the tongue assumes all sorts of 
forms ; sometimes it is flattened like a spatula ; then like a trowel, which 
applies itself to the riband of wax ; at other times it resembles a pencil 
terminating in a point. After having moistened the whole of the riband, 
the tongue pushes it so as to make it re-enter the mandibles, but in an op- 
posite direction, where it is worked up anew. The liquor mixed with the 
wax communicates to it a whiteness and opacity which it had not before; 
and the object of this mixture of boui/lie, which did not escape the obser- 
vation of Reaumur?, is doubtless to give it that ductility and tenacity 
which it possesses in its perfect state. 
The foundress-bee, a name which this first beginner of a comb deserves, 
next applies these prepared parcels of wax against the vault of the hive, 
disposing them with the point of her mandibles in the direction which she 
wishes them to take: and she continues these manceuvyres until she has 
employed the whole lamina that she had separated from her body, when 
she takes a second, proceeding in the same manner. She gives herself no 
care to compress the molecules of wax which she has heaped together ; 
she is satisfied if they adhere to each other. At length she leaves her 
work, and is lost in the crowd of her companions. Another succeeds, 
and resumes the employment; then a third ; all follow the same plan of 
placing their little masses; and if any by chance gives them a contrary 
direction, another coming removes them to their proper place. The result 
of all these operations is a mass or little wall of wax with uneven surfaces, 
five or six lines long, two lines high, and half a line thick, which descends 
perpendicularly below the yault of the hive. In this first work is no angle 
nor any trace of the figure of the cells. It is a simple partition in a right 
line without any inflection, 
The wax-makers having thus laid the foundation of a comb, are suc- 
ceeded by the nurse-bees, which are alone competent to model and perfect 
the work. The former are the labourers, who convey the stone and mor 
tar; the latter the masons, who work them up into the form which the 
intended structure requires. One of the nurse-bees now places itself 
horizontally on the vault of the hive, its head corresponding to the centre 
of the mass or wall which the wax-makers have left, and which is to form 
the partition of the comb into two opposite assemblages of cells; and 
with its mandibles, rapidly moving its head, it moulds in that side of the 
wall a cavity which is to form the base of one of the cells, to the diameter 
of which it is equal. When it has worked some minutes it departs, an 
1 Vide Mon. Ap. Ang. t, 12. * * e. 1. neut. fig. 19. 
2 Reaum, v. 424, 
