INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 475 



Iremely singular as a variation of instinct, those moths 

 which are disclosed in May and June in the granaries, 

 quit them with a rapid flight at sun-set, and betake them- 

 selves to the yet unreaped fields, where they lay their 

 eggs; while the moths which are disclosed in the granaries 

 after harvest, stay there, and never attempt to go out, but 

 lay their eggs upon the stored wheat a . This is as extra- 

 ordinary and inexplicable as if a litter of rabbits produced 

 in spring were impelled by instinct to eat vegetables, 

 while another produced in autumn should be as irresis- 

 tibly directed to choose flesh. 



It is, however, into the history of the hive-bee that we 

 must look for the most striking examples of variation of 

 instinct : and here, as in every thing relating to this in- 

 sect, 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 foundation 

 of their combs at the top of the hive, building them per- 

 pendicularly downwards ; and they pursue this plan so 

 constantly, that you might examine a thousand (probably 

 ten thousand) hives, without finding any material devia- 

 tion from it. Yet Huber in the course of his experiments 

 forced them to build their combs perpendicularly up- 

 ward b ; and, what seems even more remarkable, in an 

 horizontal direction c . 



The combs of bees are always at an uniform distance 

 from each other, namely about one third of an inch, 

 which is just wide enough to allow them to pass easily 

 and have access to the young brood. On the approach 

 of winter, when their honey-cells are not sufficient in 

 number to contain all the stock, they elongate them con- 

 * (Euvres, ix. 3/0. b Huber, ii. 134-. c Ibid. ii. 216. 



