326 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



could do to economise their space and materials, was to compose 

 their honeycombs of two rows of cells turned in opposite directions. 

 This arrangement, it will be seen, enables them to economise the 

 half of the wax intended for making the bases of the cells. They 

 economise it still more by making the bases and the sides of the 

 tubes extremely thin ; the borders only of the comb being fortified 

 by an excess of wax. These two-sided combs descend from the 

 roof of the hive in parallel series, their thick- 

 ness being about half an inch. They are 

 fixed to the top by a sort of wax foot, and 

 fastened to the sides by numerous bands. 

 The bees pass between the rows, besides 

 excavating circular openings, which serve as 

 doors of communication. The form and 

 the general arrangement of these buildings 

 are otherwise very varied, according to cir- 

 cumstances. The bees always accommodate 

 themselves to the nature of the hive. 



In all these operations they exhibit great 

 judgment. It is impossible, when one has 

 once seen them at work, to look on them as 

 mere organised machines, whose instinct is 

 their spring of action ; we are forced to con- 

 cede to them intelligence. 



The cells are of three dimensions : the 

 small ones intended for the larvae of the 

 workers, the middling-sized ones for the 

 larvae of the males, and the large ones for the larvae of the queens. 



These last that is, the royal cells are generally only about 

 twenty in number, in a hive containing 20,000 bees. Constructed 

 of a mixture of wax and of propolis, resembling a rounded thimble, 

 they form tubes of half an inch long, turned towards the exterior, 

 and placed always vertically, in such a manner as to appear detached 

 from the comb. 



The weight of a royal cell is equivalent to that of a hundred other 

 cells. The bees spare nothing to make it comfortable and spacious. 

 " It is quite a Louvre," says Re'aumur. 



But independently of their use as cradles, these cells serve as 

 storehouses for honey. 



A few of these are used in turn for both these purposes, but a 

 great number are reserved exclusively for stores of honey and pollen. 

 This is brought, as we have already said, in the form of pellets, in 



; intended for the larva: of the 

 males, c, small cells intended 

 for the larvse of the worktrs. 



