PEEFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



151 



think (but he was mistaken) that the bees elaborated wax 

 from it: and he observes, that the bees devour this when 

 they are busily engaged in constructing combs. 1 When more 

 pollen is collected than the bees have immediate occasion for, 

 they store it up in some of the empty cells. The laden bee 

 puts her two hind legs into the cell, and with the intermediate 

 pair pushes off the pellets. When this is done, she, or 

 another bee if she is too much fatigued with her day's labour, 

 enters the cell with her head first, and remains there some 

 time : she is engaged in diluting the pellets, kneading them, 

 and packing them close ; and so they proceed till the cell is 

 filled. 2 A large portion of the cells of some combs are filled 

 with this bread, which one while is found in insulated cells, 

 at another in cells amongst those that are filled with honey or 

 brood. Thus it is everywhere at hand for use. 3 



You have seen how the bees collect and employ two of the 

 materials that I mentioned ; I must now advert to the third 

 — the Propolis. Huber was a long time uncertain from 

 whence the bees procured this gummy resin; but it at last oc- 

 curred to him to plant some cuttings of a species of poplar 

 (before their leaves were developed, when their leaf-buds were 

 swelling, and besmeared and filled with a viscid juice) in some 

 pots, which he placed in the way of the bees that went from 

 his hives. Almost immediately a bee alighted upon a twig, 

 and soon with its mandibles opened a bud, and drew from it 

 a thread of the viscid matter which it contained ; with one of 

 its second pair of legs it took it from the mouth, and placed 

 it in the basket: thus it proceeded till it had given them 

 both their load. 4 I have myself seen bees very busy col- 

 lecting it from the Tacamahaca {Populus balsamifera). But 

 this is an old discovery, confirmed by recent observation ; for 

 Mouffet tells us, from Cordus, that it is collected from the 

 gems of trees, instancing the poplar and the birch. 5 Biem 

 observes that it is also collected from the pine and fir. The 



1 Ubi supra, 419. 



2 Compare Reaum. 420., and Huber, ii. 24., with Wildman, 40. 



3 For much valuable information on the economy of bees, the reader will do 

 well to consult Dr. Bevan's very interesting work on the Honey Bee. 



4 Huber, ii. 260. 



5 Insect. Thcatr. 36. Schirach, 241. 



L 4 



