484 INSTIMCT OF INSECTS. 



is pentagonal, having the fifth broadest side fixed to 

 the top of the hive, whence the comb is much more se- 

 curely cemented to that part, than if the first range of 

 cells had been of the ordinary construction. For some 

 time after their fabrication, the combs remain in thl'^ 

 state ; but at a certain period the bees attack the first 

 range of cells as if in fury, gnaw away the sides with- 

 out touching the lozenge-shaped bottoms; and having 

 mixed the wax with propolis, they form a cement well 

 known to the ancients under the names o?Alit?/s or Com- 

 mosis and Pissoceros^ which they substitute in the place 

 of the removed sides of the cells, forming of it thick and 

 massive v»alls and heavy and shapeless pillars, which 

 they introduce between the comb and the top of the 

 hive so as to agglutinate them firmly together. Hubei', 

 who first in modern times witnessed this remarkable 

 modification of the architecture of bees, observed, that 

 not only are they careful not to touch the bottoms of 

 the cells, but that they do not remove at once the cells 

 on both sides of the comb, which in that case might 

 fall down ; but they work alternately, first on one side 

 and then on the other, replacing the demolished cells 

 as they proceed, with mitys, which firmly fixes the 

 conib to its support. 



The object of this substitution of mitys for wax 

 seems clear. Wliile the combs are new and only par- 

 tially filled with honey, the first range of cells, origin- 

 ally established as the baise and the guide for the py- 

 ramidal bottoms of the subsequent ones, serves as a 

 sufficient support for them. But when they contain a 

 store of several pounds, the bees seem to foresee the 

 danger of such a weight proving too heavy for the thin 



