112 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



When tliey have in this manner worked the bottoms of 

 the first row of cells into the required forms, some of the 

 nurse-bees finish them by imparting a sort of polish, while 

 others proceed to cut out the rudiments of a second row 

 from a fresh wall of wax which has been built in the mean- 

 while by the wax-workers, and also on the 02:)posite side of 

 this wall ; for a comb of cells is always double, being 

 arranged in two layers, placed end to end. The cells of 

 this second row are engrafted on the borders of cavities 

 hollowed out in the wall, being founded by the nurse-bees, 

 brinofino; the contour of all the bottoms, w^hich is at first 

 unequal, to the same level ; and this level is kept uniform 

 in the margins of ,tlie cells till they are completed. At 

 first sight nothing appears more simple than adding wax to 

 the margins ; but from the inequalities occasioned by the 

 shape of the bottom, the bees must accumulate wax on the 

 depressions, in^ order to bring them to a level. It follows 

 accordingly that the surface of a new comb is not quite flat, 

 there being a progressive slope produced as the work 

 proceeds, and the comb being therefore in the form of a 

 lens, the thickness decreasing towards the edge, and the 

 last-formed cells being shallower or shorter than those 

 preceding them. So long as there is room for the enlarge- 

 ment of the comb, this thinning of its edge may be re- 

 marked ; but as soon as the space within the hive prevents 

 its enlargement, the cells are made equal, and two flat and 

 level surfaces are produced. 



M. Huber observed, that while sketching the bottom of a 

 cell, before there was any upright margin on the reverse, 

 their pressure on the still soft and flexible wax gave rise to 

 a projection, which sometimes caused a breach of the 

 partition. This, however, was soon repaired, but a slight 

 prominence always remained on the opposite surface, to 

 the right and left of which they placed themselves to 

 begin a new excavation ; and they heaped up part of the 

 materials between the two flutings formed by their labour. 

 The ridge thus formed becomes a guide to the direction 

 Avhich the bees are to follow for their vertical furrow of the 

 front cell. 



