BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
magnifying glass was necessary to perceive them; upon others we could discover only crystals in needle shape such as are seen upon freezing water.
These spiculae, or scales, did not rest immediately upon the membrane; they were separated from it by a slight coat of a liquid substance, perhaps serving to lubricate the junctures of the rings, or to render the extraction of the scales easier, as otherwise they might adhere too firmly to the walls of the cells.
Finally, some other bees had scales so large that they projected beyond the rings, their form more irregular than that of the previous ones; their thickness, altering the transparency of the wax, made them appear of a whitish yellow color; one could perceive them without raising the segments which usually cover them entirely.
These shades of difference in the scales of different bees, this progression in their shape and thickness, the fluid interposed between them and the walls of their cells, the relation between their size and shape, all those circumstances together appeared to indicate the transudation of this material through the membrane which moulds it.
We were confirmed in this opinion by a singular fact. On piercing the membrane, whose internal surface seemed to be applied to the soft parts of the belly, we caused the escape of a transparent fluid which coagulated in cooling; in this condition it resembled beeswax: when submitted to the influence of heat, it liquified again.
The same experiment, made upon the wax scales, had similar result; they became liquid and coagulated again according to the temperature, exactly as does beeswax.
We carried our researches farther upon the analogy of this substance with finished beeswax; for this purpose we selected the whitesst fragments of wax that we could find, taking them from newly built comb, to make the same test; for wax from old combs is always more or less colored.
FIRST EXPERIMENT.
We dropped into spirits of turpentine a few scales taken from under the rings of workers; they were dissolved and disappeared before reaching the bottom of the vessel, without rendering the fluid turbid; but an equal amount of the spirit could not dissolve, either as completely or as quickly, the white fragments of worked wax, many particles remaining suspended in the liquid.
We filled with sulphuric ether two vessels of equal size, the one was appropriated for wax from the rings of bees, the other for fragments of beeswax of equivalent weight. Scareely had the fragments of wax from combs touched the ether when they divided and fell in powder to the bottom of the vase; but the scales taken from the bees themselves were not disintegrated; they preserved their shape and only lost their transparency, becoming of a dull white color. No change took place in either of the vessels
## My Opinion Upon Beeswax.
in the space of several days. On evaporating separately the ether from each, a thin coat of wax was found on the glass; we repeated this experiment frequently, the fragments of combs were always reduced to powder; the scales, on the contrary, were never dissolved by the liquid; after several months the ether had dissolved but a very small proportion of them.
From this experiment the evidence was that the wax of the bees' rings was less compounded than that which had been built into cells, since the latter was dissolved by the ether while the former remained whole; the one was dissolved by turpentine only in part, while the other was completely dissolved by it.
If the substance taken from the rings of the bees is crude wax, it must undergo some preparation after leaving its cells and the bees must be capable of impregnating it with a substance giving it the ductility and whiteness of true wax. Hitherto, we knew only of its fusibility, but such being the chief property of the combs, we could not doubt that the scales enter in their composition.
In the hope ascertaining the primary source of the waxy matter, we had recourse to the dissection of the wax organs, but though undertaken by a skillful hand, it did not fulfill our expectations. (For the details, see the letter of Miss Jurine at the end of this volume).
No direct communication could be found between these organs and the interior of the abdomen; no vessels were found appearing to connect them, with the exception of a few trachea, doubtless intended to admit the air into these parts. But the membrane of the wax-producing organs is covered with a net-work of hexagonal meshes (Plate II, figs. 8 & 9) to which we must perhaps attribute some function connected with the secretion of wax. This net-work is not found in the males, but it exists in queens with modifications which alter its texture, and occupying in them two-thirds of each segment.
(At this point is a paragraph which is not intelligible, probably owing to some error in the publication, for it appears to be self-contradictory. We omit it. Translator).
The net-work in question is separated from the other internal parts by a grayish membrane which lines the entire abdominal cavity; when the stomach is full of the juices elaborated by it, it may allow them to transude through its very thin walls; and these juices, traversing the grayish membrane which is not thickly woven, may come in contact with the net-work of hexagon meshes. It is not impossible that, by a sort of digestion through this net-work, these juices be resorbed, producing the secretion of wax.
Although it is as yet impossible to decide upon anything on this point, it seems admissible, without breaking physiological laws, to consider this matter as produced by a particular organ after the manner of other secretions.s
* Plate III is intended to represent the lower segments of the abdomen of the three sorts of bee: fig. 1, segment of the worker; fig. 2, segment of the queen; fig. 3, segment of the male.
**Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are the same, viewed in profile, to show the inclination of the pieces of which the segments are composed.**The discovery of wax scales, of the wax-producing areas, of their trans-udation, by overthrowing ancient theories, opens a new epoch in the history of bees. It raises doubts upon several points which were considered as solved and which may not be any longer explained without the acquisition of additional information. It brings up a host of questions and offers a wider field to the researches of physiologists and amateurs of natural history; it opens new vistas to chemists, by exhibiting to them, as an animal secretion, a substance which appeared to belong to the vegetable kingdom. In a word, it is the corner stone of a new edifice.
## Chapter 21 On the Origin of Wax.
When nature exhibits a peculiar organization in one of its productions, one may be certain that it is with a useful purpose, an aim which will sooner or later be evidenced to us.
The existence of the wax organs under the rings of the bees, the shape and structure of the membranes upon which the wax scales appear to be molded; the hexagonal net-work, immediately below, its absence in insects that do not produce any wax, its presence in bubble bees with a marked modification; lastly the graduations observed in the plates of wax, from their appearance in the shape of crystals to their projecting outside of the rings, the fusibility of this material, which however differs in some regard from beeswax itself, everything indicates organs devised for an important function and we believe they are endowed with the faculty of producing wax.
However we had not discovered the channels which should bring this substance into its reservoirs; its elaboration might be produced by the action of the net-work of hexagon meshes; but we had no means of ascertaining it: the art assumed in animal and vegetable secretions will perhaps always escape our analysis, for the metamorphoses of the liquids in organized beings, when secreted by the glands and viscera in which they are elaborated appear to be carefully veiled by nature.
The means of simple observation thus being obstructed for us in this research, we felt it necessary to employ other methods for ascertaining whether wax is actually a secretion, or whether it resulted from the collection of a particular substance.
Providing it were a secretion, we had first to verify the opinion of Reaumur, who conjectured that it came from the elaboration of pollen in the stomach of bees, though we did not believe, as he did, that it was disgorged through the mouth. Neither were we disposed to adopt his views regarding its origin; for we had been struck, as was Hunter, with the fact that swarms newly gathered in empty hives do not bring home any pollen and yet construct combs; while the bees of old hives, having no new cells to build, gathered it abundantly.
It is singular that Reaumur, who had made this observation, had yet failed to realize how unfavorable it was to the common view; however well he was, more than any one, free from accepted prejudice.
We decided to make extensive experiments, to learn definitely whether bees deprived of pollen, for a series of days, would still produce wax; this was important, for we remembered that Mr. de Reaumur, in order to explain his suppositions, had assumed that it took a certain time for the elaboration of pollen within the body of bees. The indicated experiment was to retain the bees within the hive and to thus prevent them from gath
On the origin of wax.
a comb the cells of which contained only accumulated pollen: their captivity lasted eight days, during which time they did not produce any wax, nor were scales seen under the rings: could any doubt then exist upon the real origin of beeswax? We entertained none.
Could it be argued that wax is contained in the honey itself and that the bees preserve it out of this liquid in order to use it when needed? This last objection had some likelihood, for honey nearly always contains pareels of wax; one may see it rise to the surface when the honey is diluted in water; but the microscope, by exhibiting to us the fact that these patrieles belonged to previously built cells, that they were of the same shape and thickness as the broken walls of cells, gave us an indication of the lack of weight of this argument which had stopped us for a moment.
In order to formally obviate this objection, and to enlighten ourselves on a particular opinion of our own, that is: that the sweet principle was the true cause of the wax secretion; we took a bound of white sugar reduced to syrup and gave it to a swarm confined in a glass hive.
We made this experiment still more positive by establishing for a comparison, two other hives, in which two swarms were hired, one fed with very dark brown sugar and the other with honey. The result of this triple test was as satisfactory as it was possible to wish it.
The bees of all three hives produced beeswax; those that had been fed with sugar of the different grades gave more of it and in greater abundance than those that were fed with honey only.
A pound of white sugar, reduced to syrup, and clarified with the white of an egg, produced 10 gros 52 grains of beeswax darker than that which bees extract from honey. An equal weight of dark brown sugar yielded 22 gros of very white wax; a similar amount was obtained from maple sugar.
We repeated these experiments seven times in succession, with the same bees and we always obtained wax in nearly the same proportions as above. It therefore appears demonstrated that sugar and the saccharine part of honey enable the bees that feed upon it to produce wax, a property entirely denied to the fecundating dust.
The facts which these experiments gave us were soon confirmed in a more general way. Although there was no uncertainty upon these questions, it was well to ascertain whether the bees, in the natural state, would follow the same course as those which we had held captive: a long course of observations, of which we will give but a sketch, proved to us that when the fields offer to the bees a great crop of honey, those of the old hives store it eagerly, while those of the new swarms convert it into wax.
I did not then own a large number of colonies, but those of my village neighbors served for a comparison, even though they were constructed of straw and did not offer the same conveniences as my own. Certain remarks which we made upon the appearance of the combs and of the bees themselves when working in wax enabled us to avail ourselves of those hives so unfavorable for observation.
Beeswax is originally white, soon afterwards the cells become yellow, and brown with time; when the combs are very old their color is of a blackish hue. It is therefore very easy to distinguish the new combs from those which were built previously, and therefore to know whether the bees are building combs or whether the work is suspended, merely by raising up the hives and glancing at the edges of the combs.
The following observations may also furnish indications of the presence of honey in flowers. They are based upon a remarkable fact which was unknown to my precursors; it is that there are two kinds of workers in the hive; the ones which may attain a considerable size when they have filled themselves with all the honey that their stomach may contain, are in general destined to the elaboration of wax; the others, whose abdomen does not perceptibly change in appearance, retain only the quantity of honey which is necessary for their sustenance and immediately hand out to the others that which they have harvested; they are not in charge of the provisioning of the hive, their particular function being to care for the young: we will call them nurse bees, or small bees, in opposition to those whose abdomen may be dilated and which deserve the name of wax-workers.
Although the external difference by which the two sorts may be recognized be inconsiderable, this distinction is not imaginary. Anatomical observations have taught us that there is a real difference in the capacity of their stomach. We have also ascertained that the bees of one sort cannot fulfill all the functions shared among the workers of a hive. In one of these tests we painted with different colors the bees of each class, to observe their behavior, and we did not see any interchange. In another test, we gave the bees of a queenless colony both brood and pollen, and we at once saw the small bees busy themselves with the food of the larvae, while those of the wax-working class paid no attention to them.4
When the hives are full of combs, the wax-working bees disgorge their honey into the usual magazines and make no wax; but if they have no reservoir in which to deposit it, and if their queen does not find already built cells to deposit her eggs, they retain in their stomach the honey which they have gathered, and at the end of twenty-four hours wax exudes through the rings; then the labor of comb construction begins.
One might believe that, when the country does not furnish honey, wax builders may encroach upon the provisions stored up in the hive; but they are not permitted to do it; a part of the honey is carefully put away; the cells in which it is deposited are protected with a wax covering which is removed only in case of extreme need and when there is no other way to procure it elsewhere; they are never opened during the good season; other reservoirs, always open, supply the daily needs of the community; but each bee takes only that which is absolutely necessary for present requirements.
The wax-workers appear with large belles at the entrance of the hive only when the country supplies an abundant crop of honey; they produce wax only when the hive is not full of combs. It may be conceived, from what we have said, that the production of the waxy matter depends upon a concourse of circumstances that do not always appear.
The small bees may also produce wax, but in very inferior quantity to that produced by the real wax workers.
4 Huber did not then know what we learned later, by the introduction of Italian bees, that the difference in functions is due to the difference in age, of the bees of the colony. (Translator.)
## Chapter 110 On the Origin of Wax.
Another characteristic, whereby an attentive observer cannot fail to recognize the time when bees collect sufficient honey to produce wax, is the strong odor of both these substances which is produced from the hives at that time and which does not exist with such intensity at any other time.
From such data it was easy for us to recognize whether the bees worked upon their combs in our hives and in those of the cultivators of the same district.
In 1793, the inclemency of the season had retarded the departure of swarms; there were none in the country before the 24th of May; most of the hlves swarmed in the middle of June. The country was then covered with flowers, the bees collected much honey, and the new swarms worked in wax with activity.
On the 18th, Burnens visited 65 hives and saw wax workers before the entrances of all; those that entered into the old hives speedily stored their harvest, and did not build any combs; but those of the swarms converted their honey into wax and hastened to prepare Iodgings for the eggs of their queen.
The 19th was showers, the bees went out, but we did not see any wax workers; they brought in only pollen. The weather was cold and rainy until the 27th; we became anxious to learn what had resulted from this atmospheric condition.
On the 28th we raised all the hives. Burnens then saw that the work had been interrupted; the combs which he had measured on the 9th had not received the least accession, they were of eltron yellow, there were no longer any white cells in any of the hives.
On the 1st of July, the weather being warmer, and the chestnut and linden trees in bloom, we again saw the wax workers; they brought in much honey; the swarms lengthened the combs; we saw everywhere the greatest activity: the gathering of honey and the work in wax continued until the middle of the month.
But on the 16th of July, the heat having risen above 77deg (F), the country felt the drouth; the flowers of the meadows and those of the trees just mentioned were entirely faded, they no longer yielded honey; their pollen alone attracted the bees, they gathered abundantly of it, and there was no wax produced. The combs were not lengthened, those of the swarms made no progress.
It had not rained for six weeks; the heat was great; neither did any dew temper it during the night, and the buckwheat which had bloomed for several days gave no honey to the bees, they found only pollen in it; but on the 10th of August, it rained for several hours; the following day they exhaled the odor of honey and we saw it actually glitter in the open blossoms. The bees found enough for their food, but too little to be induced to work in wax.
The drouth returned on the 14th and lasted till the end of the month; we then examined the 65 hives for the last time, and saw that the bees had not worked in wax since the middle of July; that they had stored much pollen, that the provision of honey had diminished considerably in the old hlves and that there was scarcely any in the new swarms.
The year was therefore very unfavorable to the labor of bees; I at
### 120 New observations upon bees.
tribute it mainly to the condition of the atmosphere which was not charged with electricity; a circumstance which has great influence on the secretion of honey in the nectaries of flowers. I have noticed that the harvest of the bees is never more abundant nor the work in wax more active than when a storm is preparing and the wind is in the south, the air moist and warm; but heat too long protracted and the drouth ensuing, cold rains and north wind entirely suspend the elaboration of honey in plants, and consequently the operations of bees.
When we confined the bees, for the purpose of discovering whether honey was sufficient for the production of wax, they supported their captivity patiently; they showed astonishing perseverance in rebuilding their combs, as fast as they were removed by us: had we left a part of those combs to them, their queen would have laid eggs in the cells, we would have seen in what manner the workers conducted themselves towards their young, and what would have been the effect upon the latter of the deprivation of the recundating pollen; but since we were occupied solely with the question relating to the origin of wax we preferred to make a separate treatment of that which concerns the feeding of the young.
The experiment to be made required the presence of larvae in the hive; honey and water were needed; the bees must have combs containing brood and must be carefully confined, so that they might not go to the field after pollen; we chances to have a colony which had become useless from sterility of the queen; we sacrificed it for this experiment; it was in one of my leaf hives, both ends of which were glazed: we removed the queen and substituted, for the first and last combs, some combs filled with brood, eggs and young larvae, but no cells with feecundating dust; we removed every parcel of this matter which John Hunter conjectured to be the basis of the food of the young.
The behavior of the bees in these circumstances is worthy of some attention. On the first and second day of the experiment nothing extraordinary happened; the bees brooded over their young and appeared to care for them.
But on the third day, after sunset, we heard a great noise in this hive; (mpatient to discover its cause, we opened a shutter and saw all in confusion; the brood was abandoned, the workers ran in disorder over the combs; we saw thousands rush towards the lower part of the hive; those about the entrance gnawed fiercely at its grating; their intention was not equivocal, they wished to emerge from their prison.
Some imperious necessity obliged them to seek elsewhere what they could not find in their home: I feared to see them perish if we restrained them longer from their instinct; we set them at liberty. The entire swarm escaped, but the hour was not favorable for the harvest; so the bees did not depart from the hive, they flew about it. The increasing darkness and the coolness of the air soon compelled them to re-enter. Probably the same cause calmed their agitation, for we saw them reomunting peaceably upon their combs; order seemed re-established, and we profited of this moment to close the hive.
Out of curiosity, we removed the parcels of comb which we had laid upon the stand of the hive and saw that the quantity of pollen in them had been sensibly diminished; we returned them to the bees, increasing their provision still farther, so as to prolong the actions which we witnessed. We soon saw the royal cells sealed as well as several of the common cells; we again opened the hive, everywhere the worms had prospered; some had their food still before them; others had spun and their cells were sealed with a wax covering.
This result was already very striking, but what excited our astonishment above all was, that in spite of their captivity so long protracted, the bees seemed no longer anxious to go out; we could not see the agitation, the increasing and periodical trouble, the general impatience which they had manifested in the first part of the experiment; several bees, indeed, attempted to escape in the course of the day; but when they found it impossible they returned peaceably to their young.
This trait, which we have witnessed several times, always with the same interest, proves so undoubtedly the affection of bees for the larvae whose education is entrusted to them, that we shall not seek for any other explanation of their conduct.
Another fact, no less extraordinary, and the cause of which is more difficult to discern, was that exhibited by bees which were constrained to work in wax, several times successively, by giving them sugar syrup. During the first part of the tests they gave their young the usual care; but at the last they ceased to feed them, they even frequently dragged them from their cells and carried them out of the hive.