WAX AND COMB CONSTRUCTION. 
171 
which, as Latreille ( 90 ) has shown, passes through 
them in a liquid state, from glands situated beneath. 
In the queen and drone these discs are absent, and 
in the former, although the plates are broad, the 
hairs are very short, while the latter has a few stout 
feathered hairs and narrower plates. 
The wax-secreting glands (six-sided cells containing 
granules and a nucleus) are only found immediately 
under the transparent membrane, and do not exist 
beyond the framework. 
H. Holz, who describes and illustrates them in 
Bienenzeitung for 1878, says the fat cells are connected 
with the membrane by tubes, through which the liquid 
wax flows to the membrane, and passes through this 
when the temperature is at 95° to 98° Fahr. 
Latreille (90) has also pointed out that the trans- 
parent surfaces are made up of an outer and inner 
layer, the epidermis and hypodermis. A soft tissue 
formed by infiltration from secretion within is found 
between these two layers. Blanchard also found that 
the wax which was formed by glands inside the ab- 
domen, passed through the transparent membrane. 
The fluid wax is moulded on the depressed 
cavities ; the hard part of the segment above, pressing 
over them, causes the liquid wax to assume their 
shape, and the little scales (Fig. 63, a), when they 
become solid, are drawn out of these wax pockets., 
as they are usually called. 
Wax is not produced at all times, but its secretion 
is voluntary, and for its production a temperature of 
from 87° to 98° Fahr. is required, which the bees are 
