The conversion of wax scales into comb wax by African honeybees

1. The conversion of virgin beeswax scales into finished comb wax has been analysed by crystallographic, mechanical and chemical means. 2. The effects of mandibulation by the honeybees are to transform the texturally anisotropic scale into planar isotropic comb. 3. Both waxes contain proteins. They differ in gross lipid composition. 4. The saliva added to the wax by the bees contains material with very probable lipolytic activity that reduces the diglyceride pool of the scale wax with a corresponding increase in the monoglyceride fraction of the comb wax. 5. The combined effects of the crystallographic and chemical changes on the mechanical properties of the wax are as follows. Scale wax is as strong at 23°C as comb wax but the latter has twice the stiffness and is less distensible than the former. The energy to fracture comb wax (an index of the work bees must invest to shape it) is only half that of scale wax over the range of temperatures likely to impinge upon the nests of honeybees. © 1985 Springer-Verlag.