"The worker now employing the pincers at the joint of one of the third pair of its limbs, seized a scale of wax projecting from a ring, and brought it forward to its mouth with the claws of its fore-legs, where it appeared in a vertical position. We remarked that, with its claws, it turned the wax in every necessary direction; that the edge of the scale was immediately broken down, and the fragments having been accumulated in the hollow of the mandibles, issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, impregnated with a frothy liquid by the tongue. The tongue itself assumed the most varied shapes, and executed the most complicated operations,—being sometimes flattened like a trowel, and at other times pointed like a pencil; and, after imbuing the whole substance of the ribbon, pushed it forward again into the mandibles, whence it was drawn out a second time, but in an opposite direction.
Curtain of Wax-workers (see [p. 132]).
"At length the bee applied these particles of wax to the vault of the hive, where the saliva impregnating them promoted their adhesion, and also communicated a whiteness and opacity which were wanting when the scales were detached from the rings. Doubtless this process was to give the wax that ductility and tenacity belonging to its perfect state. The bee then separated those portions not yet applied to use with its mandibles, and with the same organs afterwards arranged them at pleasure. The founder bee, a name appropriated to this worker, repeated the same operation, until all the fragments, worked up and impregnated with the fluid, were attached to the vault, when it repeated the preceding operations on the part of the scale yet kept apart, and again united to the rest what was obtained from it. A second and third scale were similarly treated by the same bee; yet the work was only sketched; for the worker did nothing but accumulate the particles of wax together. Meanwhile the founder, quitting its position, disappeared amidst its companions. Another, with wax under the rings, succeeded it, which suspending itself to the same spot, withdrew a scale by the pincers of the hind legs, and passing it through its mandibles, prosecuted the work; and taking care to make its deposit in a line with the former, it united their extremities. A third worker, detaching itself from the interior of the cluster, now came and reduced some of the scales to paste, and put them near the materials accumulated by its companions, but not in a straight line. Another bee, apparently sensible of the defect, removed the misplaced wax before our eyes, and carrying it to the former heap, deposited it there, exactly in the order and direction pointed out.
"From all these operations was produced a block of a rugged surface, hanging down from the arch, without any perceptible angle, or any traces of cells. It was a simple wall, or ridge, running in a straight line, and without the least inflection, two-thirds of an inch in length, above two-thirds of a cell, or two lines, high, and declining towards the extremities. We have seen other foundation walls from an inch to an inch and a half long, the form being always the same; but none ever of greater height.
“The vacuity in the centre of the cluster had permitted us to discover the first manœuvres of the bees, and the art with which they laid the foundations of their edifices. However, it was filled up too soon for our satisfaction; for workers collecting on both faces of the wall obstructed our view of their further operations.”[AP]
ARCHITECTURE OF THE HIVE-BEE CONTINUED—FORM OF THE CELLS.