26 
MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
the queen has wax plates 011 the underside of the abdomen and wax 
glands beneath them, yet both are less developed than in the workers 
and are never used. The wax plates of the worker overlying the 
secreting glands are well shown in fig. 9. those of the queen and of 
the related genera, Bombus and Melipona, being shown for comparison. 
During wax secretion, that is, when combs are being built or honey 
cells sealed over, a high temperature is maintained in the hive, and 
many workers may be seen to have small scales of wax protruding 
from between the segments of the abdomen on the underside. The 
molds or plates, eight in number, in which the scales appear are con- 
cealed by the overlapping of the abdominal segments, but when 
exposed to view (fig. 9, a) are seen to be five-sided depressions lined 
with a transparent membrane. The wax glands themselves are beneath 
this membrane, and through it the wax comes in a liquid form. As the 
scales harden they are pushed out by the addition of wax beneath. 
Fig. 
■Wax disks of social bees: a, Apis mellifera worker; b. A.melliferaqueen; c, Melipona worker; 
d, Bombus -worker— all enlarged. (From Insect Life.) 
The bees pluck them out with neat pincers (fig. 7, a and b) formed by 
the articulation of the hind tibiae with the adjacent tarsal joints, pass 
them forward to the mandibles, and mold them into the shape of hex- 
agonal cells, meanwhile warming and moistening them with the secre- 
tions of the head glands to render the wax more pliable. 
Wax is fashioned by the workers into cells of various sizes and shapes, 
according to the use to be made of them. The most regular in shape 
and size are the cells designed for brood (fig. 4). These combs in which 
workers are bred show nearly 29 cells on a square inch of surface, the 
combs being seven-eighths inch thick and the cells generally quite 
regular hexagons in outline. Drone cells are larger, there being but 18 
of them to the square inch of surface, and the comb is 1^ inches thick. 
