INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 581 



It is, then, by encroaching in a small degree upon the cells of the other 

 face of the comb, that bees at length succeed in giving greater dimen- 

 sions to their cells ; and the graduation of the transition cells being recip- 

 rocal on the two faces of the comb, it follows that on both sides each 

 hexagonal contour corresponds with four cells. When the bees have 

 arrived at any degree of this mode of operating, they can stop there and 

 continue to employ it in several consecutive ranges of cells; but it is ta 

 the intermediate degree that they appear to confine themselves for the 

 longest period, and we then find a great number of cells of which the 

 bottoms of four pieces are perfectly regular. They might, then, construct 

 the whole comb on this plan, if their object were not to revert to the 

 pyramidal form with which they set out. In building the male cells, the 

 bees begin their foundation with a block or mass of wax thicker and higher 

 than that employed for the cells of workers, without which it would be 

 impracticable for them to preserve the same order and symmetry in work- 

 ing on a larger scale. 



Irregularities (to use the language of Huber, from whom the above 

 details are abstracted) have often been observed in the cells of bees. 

 Reaumur, Bonnet, and other naturalists, cite them as so many examples 

 of imperfections. What would have been their astonishment if they had 

 been aware that part of these anomalies are calculated ; that there exists, 

 as it were, a moveable harmony in the mechanism by which the cells are 

 composed ? If, in consequence of the imperfection of their organs, or of 

 their instruments, bees occasionally constructed some of their cells unequal, 

 or of parts badly put together, it would still manifest some talent to be 

 able to repair these defects, and to compensate one irregularity by ano- 

 ther ; but it is far more astonishing that they know how to quit their 

 ordinary routine when circumstances require that they should build male 

 cells ; that they should be instructed to vary the dimensions and the 

 shape of each piece so as to return to a regular order ; and that, after 

 having constructed thirty or forty ranges of male cellsj they again leave 

 the regular order on which these were formed, and arrive by successive 

 diminutions at the point from which they set out. How should these 

 insects be able to extricate themselves from such a difficulty — from such 

 a complicated structure? how pass from the little to the great, from a 

 regular plan to an irregular one, and again resume the former ? These 

 are questions which no known system can explain.^ 



Here again, as observed in a former instance, the wonder would be less, 

 if every comb contained a certain number of transition and of male cells, 

 constantly situated in one and the same part of it ; but this is far from 

 being the case. The event which alone, at whatever period it may hap- 

 pen, seems to determine the bees to construct male cells, is the ovi posi- 

 tion of the queen. So long as she continues to lay the eggs of workers, 

 not a male cell is founded ; but as soon as she is about to lay male eggs, 

 the workers seem aware of it, and you then see them form their cells 

 irregularly, impart to them by degrees a greater diameter, and at length 

 prepare suitable ranges of cradles for all the male race.^ You must per- 

 ceive how absurd it would be to refer this astonishing variation of instinct 



» Ruber, ii. 221—226. 244—247. " Ibid. ii. 226. 



49* 



