Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy. Inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc / by John Hunter ... With notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
434/494 page 426
![whereas new-made comb was all of one colour. I observed that: it was gathered with more avidity for old hives, where the comb’ is complete, than for those hives where it is only begun, which we © eould hardly conceive if it was the materials of wax: also we may observe that at the very beginning of a hive, the bees seldom bring in any substance on their legs for two or three days, and after that the farina gatherers begin to increase ; for now some cells are formed to hold it as a store, and some eggs are laid, which when hatched will require this substance as food, and which will be ready when the weather is wet. I have also observed, that when the weather has either been so cold, or so wet, in June, as to hinder a young swarm from going abroad, they have yet in that time formed as much new comb as they did in the same time when the weather was such as allowed them to go abroad. I have seen them bring it in about the latter end of March, and have observed in glass hives the bees with the farina on their legs, and have seen them dis- posing of it, as will be described hereafter. The wax is formed by the bees themselves; it may be called an external secretion of oil, and I have found that it is formed be- tween each scale of the under side of the belly.* When I first ob- served this substance, in my examination of the working bee, I was at a loss to say what it was: I asked myself if it was new scales forming, and whether they cast the old, as the lobster, &c., does? But it was to be found only between the scales, on the lower side of the belly. On examining the bees through glass hives while they were climbing up the glass I could see that most of them had this substance, for it looked as if the lower or posterior edge of the scale was double, or that there were double scales; but I perceived | it was loose, not attached. Finding that the substance brought in on their legs was farina, intended, as appeared from every circum- stance, to be the food of the maggot, and not to make wax, and not having yet perceived anything that could give me the least idea of wax, I conceived these scales might be it, at least I thought it necessary to investigate them. I therefore took several on the point of a needle, and held them to a candle, where they melted, and immediately formed themselves into a round globe ; upon which I no longer doubted but this was the wax, which opinion was con- little pellets. Now if the pollen were taken indiscriminately from different flowers, the difference in the size and shape of the pollen-grains would probably prevent them cohering together sufficiently to allow of the pellet being formed. Hence it is that in watching the return of bees to the hive some may be seen laden with yellow-coloured pellets, others with orange, pink, white, or greenish- coloured ones. The grains of pollen are not changed by the operation of kneading when detached from the pellet; under a miscroscope they are seen to possess their original figure.] * (Hunter first confirmed this statement by actual observation, but the merit of the discovery is entirely Hunter’s. The only approach to it is in the observa- tion by Morley, who says that he has taken bees with six pieces of wax within the plaits of the abdomen, three on each side (Female Monarchy, 1774), but with out knowing the source of these pieces of wax.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33292292_0434.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
