BEES AND WASPS — DENEEAL HABITS. 
]«1 
knowledge of the increased dimensions to which the 
animal will grow under the influence of this food. Only 
one queen is required for a single hive; but the bees 
always raise several, so that if any mishap should occur to 
one, other larvae may be ready to fall back upon. 
Besides honey and bee-bread two other substances are 
found iu beehives. These are propolis and beeswax. 
The former is a kind of sticky resin collected for the most 
part from coniferous trees. This is used as mortar in 
building, &c. It adheres so strongly to the legs of the 
bee which has gathered it, that it can only be detached 
by the help of comrades. For this purpose the loaded 
bee presents her legs to her fellow- workers, who clean it 
off with their jaws, and while it is still ductile, apply it 
round the inside of the hive. According to Huber, who 
made this observation, the propolis is applied also to the 
insides of the cells. The workers first planed the surfaces 
with their mandibles, and one of them then pulled out a 
thread of propolis from the heap deposited by the carrier 
bees, severed it by a sudden throwing back of the head, 
and returned with it to the cell which it had previously 
been planing. It then laid the thread between the two 
walls which it had planed ; but, proving too long, a portion 
of the thread was bitten off. The properly measured portion 
was then forced into the angle of the cell by the fore-feet 
' and mandibles. The thread, now converted into a narrow 
ribbon, was next found to be too broad. It was therefore 
gnawed down to the proper width. Other bees then com- 
pleted the work which this one had begun, till all the walls 
of the cells were framed with bands of propolis. The ob- 
ject of the propolis here seems to be that of giving strength 
to the cells. 
The wax is a secretion which proceeds from between 
( he segments of the abdomen. Having ingested a large 
meal of honey, the bees hang in a thick cluster from the 
top of their hive in order to secrete the wax. When it 
begins to exude, the bees, assisted by their companions, 
rub it off into heaps, and when a sufficient quantity of the 
material has been thus collected, the work begins of build- 
ing the cells* As the cells are used both for storing food and 
