Formerly, naturalists thought that wax was elaborated from pollen; but it is now fully known that it is the animal fat of the bees, and to produce it requires a considerable consumption of honey to supply the drain upon the system. Whilst this secretion is going on, bees keep themselves very still. In order to pass through the pores of the abdomen, the wax is, no doubt, a liquid oily matter, which, on making its appearance outside the abdominal rings, thickens, and exudes from under the four medial rings, in flakes like fish scales, one on either side; so that there are eight of these secreting cavities, which are peculiar to the worker: they are not found either in the queen or drone. The shape of these cavities is that of an irregular pentagon, and the plates of wax, being moulded in them, exhibit accordingly the same form (see Plate II., fig. 5, _w_). No direct channel of communication between the stomach and these receptacles, or wax-pockets, has yet been discovered; but Huber conjectures that the secreting vessels are contained in the membrane which lines these receptacles, and which is covered with a reticulation of hexagonal meshes, analogous to the inner coat of the second stomach of ruminant quadrupeds. The little plates of wax are withdrawn by the bee itself, with its hind feet, carried to the mouth with its fore feet, where the wax is made soft and ductile. When a cluster or swarm is placed in a new hive, and the bees suspend themselves in the form of a garland, as before described, it seems feasible that the lower bees pass their secretions up the living ladder to the uppermost ones, to be moulded by them into those beautiful white hexagonal shapes of which new comb is composed. The rapidity with which comb-building progresses at such times would lead to the supposition that there is a division of labour of this kind among them, just as our labourers convey building material to the artisan on the scaffold above. This work of comb-building is carried forward in warm weather; a cold temperature interferes with the secretion of wax. The last important organ of the abdomen is the sting: this small but effective weapon is situate close to the stomach, and is found in the queen and worker, but is absent in the drone. Our engraving (Plate 11., fig. 4) exhibits the sting of the worker-bee, with its muscles and attachments: _r_ shows the muscles that move the sting, and _q_ the curved base of the sheath that encloses the sting.