240 



Marvels of Insect Life, 



the mistake. It was found that the book of logarithms he had used as the basis 

 for his calculations contained an error which accounted for that 2' in his results. 

 So the bees led to the correction of the book of logarithms, whose error might have 

 led in other directions to lamentable results. 



The comb is not built upwards from the base, but downwards from the roof. 

 A small quantity of wax is deposited by one bee to which others add in succession 

 until sufficient is amassed for the commencement of operations. Then a worker 

 begins to excavate in it the foundation of a cell. She continues for a time and then 

 goes off, another worker taking her place immediately and working for a spell. 

 No one bee, therefore, completes a cell, but each is built up by a number of workers 

 doing a little in succession. When the bottom begins to take form, other bees work 



at a corresponding cell on the other side of the wax 

 curtain. It will be seen that these three lozenge- 

 shaped plates constituting the bottom of the cell have 

 each two free margins — six in all — and it'is by building 

 up the walls from these margins that the hexagonal 

 form of the cell is arrived at. As the work of the 

 builders proceeds, the workers who are making wax 

 come and go, leaving additional contributions of wax 

 for the workers to manipulate. There is a difference 

 in the size of the cells according to the use to which 

 thev are to be put. Some of the earlier observers, 

 noticing this discrepancy in size, regarded it as a defect 

 in the calculations of the bees. As a matter of fact, 

 the difference is deliberately designed. The cells 

 intended as cradles for worker-grubs have a diameter 

 of one-fifth of an inch ; those for males or drones are 

 one-fourth of an inch ; the royal cells for the produc- 

 tion of future queens are different altogether from these, 

 much larger and of different form, jutting out from the 

 ''"tLcv. ok Hone?-Bee'^"'^""- ^^omb and taking a downward direction. They are 

 Th- instrument by which the bee collects the somcwliat pcar-shapcd, and about fivc tlmcs longcr 



nectar from tiowers to be converted into , , . . ^ ^ . ' 



honey. -As shown here, it has been dis- than thc dronc cclls. 1 hcrc IS no cvidencc ot parsHiionv 



seated out from the surrounding mouth- . 



parts and greatly magnified. ui thc structurc ot thc roval ccll ; thc prccious wax 



is lavished here to form thick walls, rough and irregular without, but smooth and 

 polished within. 



The ordinary cells have walls so thin that light passes through them, but the 

 outer edge is thickened into a sort of rim, as this has to be subjected to much friction 

 from thc feet of many workers passing over it, whilst thc lower parts of the walls 

 are supported by the mutual pressure of the honey in adjacent cells. Roughly 

 speaking, these cells may be said to be horizontal, but there is a slight inclination 

 downward from the mouth to the base. Although the cells are in this position 

 the honey does not run out, chiefly owing to capillary attraction, though it might 

 do so in very hot weather, when the honey becomes more fluid. Until a cell is 

 quite full of honey it cannot be capped, and it will be casil}' understood that an 



