348 



HALF HOUKS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



Fig, 259. 



Ccliri of Humble Bee. 



has been most ably advocated by the Rev. Samuel Haughton. 

 His view is that the hexagonal form of the cell "may be 

 accounted for simply b}' the mechanical pressure of the in- 

 sects against each other during the formation of the cell. 

 In consequence of the instinct that compels them to work 



with reference to a plane, and 

 of the cylindrical form of the 

 insect's body, the cells must 

 be hexagonal." Now, this 

 view would scarcely apply to 

 the hexagonal cells of the 

 Avasp's nests at the period 

 when only three cells have 

 been made, and a single wasp 

 is the builder ; nor to the nest of Icaria giMatipennis* where 

 six cells are arranged in a single row and attached to a 

 branch by a slender stalk at one end of the row. In this 

 instance also there is no crowding together of several indi- 

 viduals working simultaneously, but a solitary wasp freely 

 building her hexagonal cells without being subject to me- 

 chanical constraint. 



If there was not the agency of mind in the operation super- 

 added to the reproductive instinct which primarily impels all 

 the insect world to action, we should never have had an ad- 

 vance beyond the humble bee stage. So among the wasps ; if 

 they had alwa3's solely lived on the principle of each one pro- 

 viding for itself, if the reproductive and selfish instincts alone 

 held sway, we should never have seen wasps building cells 

 in common, under a common shelter, and w^orking together 

 for the common good of all. The whole course of nature 

 tends to establish the fact that in the early history of the 

 sport or variety which gave rise to the species as we now 

 find it, some bees more quick-witted than others struck out 

 in new directions, took a step in advance of their fellows, 



*See the figure in my "Guide to the Study of Insects," Pi. 5, Fig. 7. 



28 



