INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 483 



a certain point form a conception of the instinct which 

 leads these animals to employ their art of building cells, 

 yet how can we conceive of that which in particular cir- 

 cumstances forces them to act in an opposite direction, 

 and determines them to demolish what they have so la- 

 boriously constructed * ? 



Drones, or male bees, are more bulky than the work- 

 ers ; and you have been told, in speaking of the habita- 

 tions of insects, that the cells which bees construct for 

 rearing the larvae of the former, are larger than those 

 destined for the education of the larvae of the latter. The 

 diameter of the cells of drones is always 3^ lines (or 

 twelfths of an inch) ; that of those of workers 2| lines : 

 and these dimensions are so constant in their oi'dinary 

 cells, that some authors have thought they might be 

 adopted as an universal and invariable scale of measure, 

 which would have the great recommendation of being 

 every where at hand, and at all events would be prefer- 

 able to our barley-corns. Several ranges of male cells, 

 sometimes from thirty to forty, are usually found in each 

 comb, generally situated about the middle. Now as these 

 cells are not isolated, but form a part of the entire comb, 

 corresponding on its two faces — by what art is it that the 

 bees unite hexagonal cells of a small, with others of a 

 larger diameter, without leaving any void spaces, and 

 without destroying the uniformity and regularity of the 

 comb? This problem would puzzle an ordinary artist, 

 but is easily solved by the resources of the instinct of our 

 little workmen. 



When they are desirous of constructing the cells of 

 males below those of workers, they form several ranges 



" Huber, ii. 228. 

 2 I 2 



