116 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



TNdtli old wax. They rendered them much thiclver than 

 before, and fabricated a number of new connections, to 

 unite them more firmly to each other and to the sides of 

 their dwelling. All this passed in the middle of January, 

 a time that these insects commonly keep in the upper part 

 of their hive, and when work is no longer seasonable."* 



M. Huber the younger shrewdly remarks, that the tend- 

 ency to symmetiy observable in the architecture of bees 

 does not hold so much in small details as in the whole 

 work, because they are sometimes obliged to adapt them- 

 selves to particular localities. One irregidarity leads on to 

 another, and it commonly arises from mere accident, or from 

 design on the part of the proprietor of the bees. By allowing, 

 for instance, too little interval between the spars for receiv- 

 ing the foundation of the combs, the structure has been 

 continued in a particular direction. The bees did not at 

 first appear to be sensible of the defect, though they after- 

 wards began to suspect their error, and were then observed 

 to change their line of work till they gained the customary 

 distance. The cells having been by this change of direc- 

 tion in some degree curved, the new ones which were com- 

 menced on each side of it, by being built everywhere 

 parallel to it, partook of the same curvature. But the bees 

 did not relish such approaches to the " line of beauty," and 

 exerted themselves to bring their buildings again into the 

 regular form. 



In consequence of several irregularities which they wished 

 to correct, the younger Huber has seen bees depart from 

 their usual practice, and at once lay on a spar two founda- 

 tion walls not in the same line. They could consequently 

 neither be enlarged without obstructing both, nor from their 

 position could the edges unite had they been prolonged. 

 The little architects, however, had recourse to a very 

 ingenious contrivance : they curved the edges of the two 

 combs, and brought them to unite so neatly that they could 

 be both prolonged in the same line with ease ; and when 

 carried to some little distance, their surface became quite 

 uniform and level. 



*' Huber on Bees, p. 41 G. 



