INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 491 



It is, then, by encroaching in a small degree upon 

 the cells of the other face of the comb, that bees at 

 length succeed in giving greater dimensions to their 

 cells ; and the graduation of the transition cells being 

 reciprocal on the two faces of the comb, it follows that 

 on both sides each hexagonal contour corresponds with 

 four cells. — When the bees have arrived at any degree 

 of this mode of operating, they can stop there and con- 

 tinue to employ it in several consecutive ranges of 

 ceils : but it is to the intermediate degree that they ap- 

 pear to confine themselves for the longest period, and 

 we then find a great number of cells of which the bot- 

 toms of four pieces are perfectly regular. They might, 

 then, construct the whole comb on this plan, if their 

 object were not to revert to the pyramidal form with 

 which they set out. — In building the male cells, the 

 bees begin their foundation with a block or mass of 

 Wax thicker and higher than that employed for the 

 cells of workers, without which it would be impracti- 

 cable for them to preserve the same order and symme- 

 try in working on a larger scale. 



Irregularities (to use the language of Huber, from 

 whom the above details are abstracted) have often been 

 observed in the cells of bees. Reaumur, Bonnet and 

 other naturalists cite them as so many examples of im- 

 perfections. What would have been their astonish- 

 ment if they had been aware that part of these ano- 

 malies are calculated ; that there exists as it were a 

 moveable harmony in the mechanism by which the cells 

 are composed ! If, in consequence of the imperfection 

 of their organs or of their instruments, bees occasion- 

 ally constructed some of their cells unequal, or of parts 



