34 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



generally going on at the same time : no sooner 

 is the foundation of one laid, with a few rows of 

 cells attached to it, than a second and a third are 

 founded on each side, parallel to the first, and 

 so on till the hive is filled, the combs which were 

 commenced first, being always in the most advanced 

 state, and therefore the first completed. 



102. The design of every comb is sketched 

 out, and the first rudiments laid, by a single bee : 

 this foundress-bee forms a block out of a rough 

 mass of wax, drawn partly from its own resources, 

 but principally from those of other bees, which 

 furnish wax from the small sacks before described, 

 taking out the plates of wax with their hind feet, 

 and carrying it with their fore feet to their mouths, 

 where it is moistened, masticated, and rendered 

 soft and ductile. 



103. The foundress-bee determines the relative 

 position of the combs, and their distance from 

 each other ; the foundations which she marks 

 serving as guides to the ulterior labours of the 

 wax-working bees, and of those which build the 

 cells, giving them the advantage of the margins 

 and angles already formed. 



104. The mass of wax prepared by the assist- 

 ants, is applied by the foundress-bee to the roof or 

 bottom of the hive, and thus a slightly double- 

 convex mass is formed : when of sufficient size, 

 a cell is sculptured on one side of it by the bees, 

 who relieve one another in the labour. 



