Phillips. — On tlie Comb of the Hive-bee. 483 



I may be allowed here to digress for one moment to give 

 an example of progressive development which forms one phase 

 of progressive iidaptation as distinct from the theory of natural 

 selection. It was formerly supposed that a very minute 

 crustaceous animal inhabiting the open sea, named Zoea, was 

 totally distinct from the genus Megalopa, which again was sup- 

 posed to be totally distinct from every known genus of Crus- 

 tacea. Gosse very clearly points out that " These conclusions 

 were set aside by the brilliant discovery of Dr. Vaughan 

 Thompson that Zoea and Megalopa were the same animal in 

 different stages of existence ; and that, moreover, both were 

 but the early states of well-known and familiar forms of larger 

 Crustacea, which therefore undergo a metamorphosis as com- 

 plete as that by which tlie caterpillar changes to a chrysalis 

 and the chrysalis to a butterfly, and in every essential point 

 parallel to it. In the Cove of Cork Dr. Thompson met with 

 a considerable number of Zoeas, which he kept in captivity. 

 Some of these changed into the Megalopa form, which in turn 

 changed to the most abundant of all our larger Crustacea, the 

 common shore-crab (Garciims mcenas). Thus, in its progress 

 from the egg to its final development, the crab was forced to 

 pass through two temporary conditions, which had previously 

 been regarded as types not of genera only, but of diliferent 

 families, and both strikingly dissimilar from the group to which, 

 in its perfect state, it belongs." 



Here we have an example of progressive development 

 which quite puzzled Darwin himself under his ow^n theory. 

 But w^e know of many other instances of peculiar stages of 

 development in nature to which the theory of natural selection 

 does not at all apply, and I propose to refer to them later on. 



But let us proceed. It will be observed that the sides of 

 the comb-walls — the ends of the layers — are finished off almost 

 in perfect planes. Pass the fingers carefully over them, and, 

 UD matter whether the distances between the walls be three, 

 five, seven, or nine lines (for my non-scientific hearers I may 

 explain that twelve lines go to the inch), it will be seen how 

 beautifully the bees know when to cease the length of the cell 

 or rhomb. (In geometry a rhomb or rhombus is an oblique- 

 angled equilateral parallelogram.) Here is a further piece of 

 knowledge on the bees' part of which Darwin took no account. 

 I may explain that it is by the dexterous use of their stings 

 that the bees finish off and cap their cells, injecting a minute 

 portion of formic acid into the honey as the cell is filled and 

 closed. This acid is really the poison of their stings, and it 

 imparts to the honey its peculiar flavour and keeping-qualities. 

 The sting is an exquisitely-contrived little trowel, and it greatly 

 helps in giving the plane surface to the sides of the layers. I 

 may further be allowed to say that to describe the cylindrical 



