324 - THE INSECT WORLD. 



chains, fixed by the two ends to the roof, which serve as a bridge or 

 ladder to the bees which join this assembly. 



The result of all this is at last a cluster or swarm of bees which 

 hangs down to the bottom of the hive. In this attitude they remain 

 at first motionless, waiting till the honey in their stomachs is changed 

 into wax. When the wax is sufficiently elaborated in its organs, one 

 of them detaches itself from the group of which it forms a part It 

 takes between its legs one of the flakes of wax adhering to the rings 

 of its abdomen, kneads it with its mandibles, moistens it with its 

 saliva, and gives it the appearance of a soft filament, which it sticks on 

 to a projecting point of the roof. To this first layer it adds others, 

 till it has exhausted all its wax. Then it leaves its post, and returns 

 to the fields ; another worker another mason, as they are sometimes 

 called succeeds it, and continues the laying of the foundations. 

 Presently shapeless blocks of wax hang down from the roof. It is in 

 these blocks that other workers, with their mandibles, hollow out and 

 form the first cells. While the workers continue to prolong the 

 foundation-wall, and whilst the first cells are being shaped, new ones 

 are roughly sketched out or rough-hewn, and the work advances with 

 a marvellous rapidity. 



Each cell forms a small hexagonal cup, closed on one side only by 

 a pyramidal base, produced by the meeting together of three rhombs. 

 The honeycombs are the result of two layers of cells placed back to 

 back, arranged in such a way that the bases of the one become the 

 bases of the other, the base of each little cell being formed by the 

 union of the bases of three opposite cells. The bees begin by form- 

 ing the base of the cell ; they then add the six sides, or walls, which 

 are to complete the hexagonal cup. At the same time others set to 

 work on the opposite side of the comb, and construct little cells back 

 to back with the cells of the front surface. They do not finish them 

 off at once. The walls are at first very thick : new workers, who 

 succeed those who merely mark out the work, being occupied in 

 planing down the rough-hewn cells, and in reducing the walls to the 

 desired thickness. This work is accomplished with an incredible 

 celerity, for the bees can build as many as 4,000 cells in twenty- 

 four hours. There is very good reason for the hexagonal form being 

 adopted by the bees in constructing their cells, as it involves a question 

 of economy, which these insects have solved in their most admirable 

 manner. 



"When one has well examined," says Reaumur,* " the true shape 



* "Memoires pour servlr a 1'Histoire cles Insectes," tome v., p. 379. 



