480 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



second appear at the end of the summer or in autumn^ 

 and these lay their eggs upon wheat in the granaries. 

 These last pass the winter in the state of larvae, from 

 which proceeds the first generation of moths. But 

 what is extremely singular as a variation of instincty 

 those moths which are disclosed in Mai/ and June in 

 the granaries, quit them with a rapid flight at sun-set, 

 and betake themselves to the yet unreaped fields, where 

 they lay their eggs ; while the moths which are dis- 

 closed in the granaries after harvest, stay there, and 

 never attempt to go out, but lay their eggs upon the 

 stored wheat*. — This is as extraordinary and inexpli- 

 cable as if a litter of rabbits produced in spring were 

 impelled by instinct to eat vegetables, while another 

 produced in autumn should be as irresistibly directed 

 to choose flesh. 



It is, liowever, into the history of the hive-bee that 

 we must look for the most striking examples of varia- 

 tion of instinct; and here, as in everything relating to 

 this insect, the work of the elder Huber is an unfailing 

 source of the most novel and interesting facts. 



It is the ordinary instinct of bees to lay the founda- 

 tion of their combs at the top of the hive, building them 

 perpendicularly downwards ; and they pursue this plan 

 so constantly, that you might examine a thousand 

 (probably ten thousand) hives, without finding any ma- 

 terial deviation from it. Yet Huber in the course of 

 his experiments forced them to build their combs per- 

 pendicularly upward'' ; and, what seems even more re- 

 markable, in an horizontal direction'^. 



The combs of bees are always at an uniform distance 



• (Euvres, ix. 370. " ii. 134—. " Huber, ii, 216, 



