476 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



siderably, and thus increase their capacity. By this ex- 

 tension the intervals between the combs are unavoidably 

 contracted ; but in winter well-stored magazines are es- 

 sential, while from their state of comparative inactivity- 

 spacious communications are less necessary. On the re- 

 turn of spring, however, when the cells are wanted for 

 the reception of eggs, the bees contract the elongated 

 cells to their former dimensions, and thus re-establish 

 the just distances between the combs which the care of 

 their brood requires ». But this is not all. Not only do 

 they elongate the cells of the old combs when there is an 

 extraordinary harvest of honey, but they actually give to 

 the new cells which they construct on this emergency a 

 much greater diameter as well as a greater depth ^ 



The queen-bee in ordinary circumstances places each 

 egg in the centre of the pyramidal bottom of the cell, 

 where it remains fixed by its natural gluten : but in an 

 experiment of Huber, one whose fecundation had been 

 retarded, had the first segments of her abdomen so swell- 

 ed that she was unable to reach the bottom of the cells. 

 She therefore attached her eggs (which were those of 

 males) to their lower side, two lines from the mouth. As 

 the larvae always pass that state in the place where they 

 are deposited, those hatched from the eggs in question 

 remained in the situation assigned them. But the woik- 

 ing-bees, as if aware that in these circumstances the cells 

 would be too short to contain the larva,^vvhen fully grown, 

 added to their lengthy even before the eggs were hatched ^. 



Bees close up the cells of the grubs, previously to their 

 transformation, with a cover or lid of wax: and in hang- 

 ing its abode with a silken tapestry before it assumes the 

 ■•■ Huber, i. 348. " Ibid. ii. 23/. ' Ibid. i. 119. 



