Insect architecture / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insect architecture / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Thorley,* appears to have been the first who suspected the true origin of wax, and Wildman (1769) seems also to have been aware of it; but Riaumur, and particularly Bonnet, though both of them in general | shrewd and accurate obseryers, were partially de-. ceived by appearances. ih _- The bees, we are erroneously told, search for wax “upon all sorts of trees and plants, but especially the rocket, the-singular poppy, and in general all kinds . of flowers. They amass it with their hair, with which their whole body is invested. It is something pleasant to see them roll in the yellow dust which falls from the chives to the bottom~of-the flowers, and then return covered with the same grains; but their best method of gathering the wax, especially. when it is not very plentiful, is to carry away all the little particles of it with their jaws and fore-feet, to press the wax upon them into little pellets, and slide them, one at a time, with their middle feet, into a socket or cavity, that opens at their hinder feet, and serves to keep the burden fixed and steady till they return home. They are sometimes exposed to incon - veniences in this work-by the motion of the air, and the delicate texture of the flowers which bend under their feet, and hinder them from. packing up their booty, on which occasions they fix themselves in some steady place, where they press the wax into a mass, and wind it round their legs, making frequent re- turns to the flowers; and when they have stocked themselves. with a sufficient- quantity, they imme- diately repair to their habitation. Two men, im the. ‘compass of a whole day, could not amass so much as two little balls of wax; and yet they are no more than the common burthen of a single bee, and the produce of one journey. . Those who are employed * Melisselogia, or Female Monarchy, 8vo.; Lond. 1744, is
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