Numerous works have been entirely devoted to the habits and instincts of Bees and Ants, and very interesting they are, but it would be impossible to give an intelligible account of them in the small space allotted in this volume. The wax of which Bees build their beautiful six-sided cells, and which is the whole source of all the wax used by men for a variety of purposes, is secreted in little scales or flakes, between the joints of the abdomen, from whence the wax-making Bees take it to build the comb; the cells of the comb are filled with honey, which is obtained by the Bees (by means of the apparatus shown at fig. 23), from the nectaries of flowers in the form of nectar, and is converted into honey in the honey-bag of the Bee, from whence it is discharged into the cells. Bees also collect the pollen from the flowers they visit, this adheres to the hairs on the Bee, and is scraped and brushed off, and collected into two little lots, which the Bee carries on each hind leg, this pollen is made into bee-bread. By scattering the pollen, flowers are often fecundated, for there are many plants, the female flowers of which are separate from the males, and it is only by insects and the wind, that the females are fecundated, for the Bee, with the pollen adhering to every part, first visits one flower and then another in search of nectar. [Illustration: FIG. 23.--HONEY-LAPPING APPARATUS OF WILD SEA-BEE (Halictus), (_a_, magnified; _a b_, more highly magnified).] [Illustration: FIG. 24.--WHITE ANTS (1, Winged Female; 2, Female, distended with eggs).] [Illustration: FIG. 25--NESTS OF WHITE ANTS.] With respect to the Ants, Kirby and Spence give the following account of the building of their habitations,