The light colored pellets which are carried into the hive on the hind legs of the workers, and which have been described as pollen, are often mistaken for wax. The fact is, wax is not gathered in the form in which we see it, except in rare instances, when, bits of comb having been left about, small quantities will be loaded up and taken in as pellets on the legs. Ordinarily it comes into the hive in the shape of honey and is transformed by the workers within their own bodies into wax. This production is wholly confined to the workers, for although the queen has wax plates 011 the underside of the abdomen and wax glands beneath them, yet both are less developed than in the workers and are never used. The wax plates of the worker overlying the secreting glands are well shown in fig. 9, those of the queen and of the related genera, _Bombus_ and _Melipona_, being shown for comparison. During wax secretion, that is, when combs are being built or honey cells sealed over, a high temperature is maintained in the hive, and many workers may be seen to have small scales of wax protruding from between the segments of the abdomen on the underside. The molds or plates, eight in number, in which the scales appear are concealed by the overlapping of the abdominal segments, but when exposed to view (fig. 9, _a_) are seen to be five-sided depressions lined with a transparent membrane. The wax glands themselves are beneath this membrane, and through it the wax comes in a liquid form. As the scales harden they are pushed out by the addition of wax beneath. The bees pluck them out with neat pincers (fig. 7, _a_ and _b_) formed by the articulation of the hind tibiæ with the adjacent tarsal joints, pass them forward to the mandibles, and mold them into the shape of hexagonal cells, meanwhile warming and moistening them with the secretions of the head glands to render the wax more pliable. [Illustration: Fig. 9.--Wax disks of social bees: _a_, Apis mellifera worker; _b_. A. mellifera queen; _c_, Melipona worker; _d_, Bombus worker--all enlarged. (From Insect Life.)] COMBS. Wax is fashioned by the workers into cells of various sizes and shapes, according to the use to be made of them. The most regular in shape and size are the cells designed for brood (fig. 4). These combs in which workers are bred show nearly 29 cells on a square inch of surface, the combs being seven-eighths inch thick and the cells generally quite regular hexagons in outline. Drone cells are larger, there being but 18 of them to the square inch of surface, and the comb is 1¼ inches thick. The cells of combs designed only for honey are frequently more irregular in shape, generally curve upward somewhat, and are often deepened as the honey is stored in them, so that these combs sometimes reach a thickness of 2 or 3 inches.