The Life of the Individual 
109 
their proper position and 
shape. In spite of the 
number of bees at work 
in building, the wax is 
quickly smoothed into its 
final form, becoming a 
part of the comb. 
Dreyling 1 has shown 
that in just emerged 
worker bees the cells of 
the wax glands are not 
fully developed and that 
as the worker grows older 
the cells elongate. As the 
bee ages, however, these 
cells decrease and degen¬ 
erate. These results fully support the observations of 
beekeepers that bees secrete wax best before they become 
field bees. If, however, a colony of old bees is required to 
build comb, the bees can 
still secrete some wax, but 
for some reason not under¬ 
stood they usually build 
irregularly. 
Beeswax is secreted in 
pockets on the ventral side 
of the abdomen on the wax 
plates (Fig. 53) situated 
on the sternal plates of the 
last four visible segments 
of the abdomen. Each 
segment bears two of these 
plates, making eight in all. 
1 Dreyling, L., 1903. Ueber die wachsbereitendeu Organe der Honig- 
biene. Zool. Adz., XXVI. 
- , 1905. Die wachsbereitcnden Organe bei den gesellig lebenden 
Bienen. Zool. Jahrbllcher, Abth. Anat. u. Out. d. Theire, XXII. 
Fig. 56. — Side view of worker removing 
wax-scale. Enlarged. 
Fig. 55. — Ventral view of worker re¬ 
moving wax-scale. Enlarged. 
