INSECT ARCHITECTURE 



Abdomen of Wax-worker Bee. 



" All the scales," says Huber, " are not alike in 

 every bee, for a difference is perceptible in consist- 

 ence, shape, and thickness ; some are so thin and 

 transparent, as to require a magnifier to be recog- 

 nised, or we have been able to discover nothing but 

 spiculae similar to those of water freezing. Neither the 

 spiculae nor the scales rest immediately on the mem- 

 brane of the pocket, a slight liquid medium is inter- 

 posed, serving to lubricate the joinings of the rings, 

 or to render the extraction of the scales easier, as 

 otherwise they might adhere too firmly to the sides 

 of the pockets." M. Huber has seen the scales so 

 large as to project beyond the rings, being visible 

 without stretching the segments, and of a whitish- 

 yellow, from greater thickness lessening their trans- 

 parency. These shades of difference in the scales of 

 various bees, their enlarged dimensions, the fluid in- 

 terposed beneath them, the correspondence between 

 the scale, and the size and form of the pockets, seem 

 to infer the oozing of this substance through the mem- 



