484 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



of intermediate or transition cells, of which the diame- 

 ter augments progressively, until they have reached that 

 range where the male cells commence ; and in the same 

 manner, when they wish* to revert to the modelling of 

 the cells of workers, they pass by a gradually decreasing 

 gradation to the ordinary diameter of the cells of this 

 class. We commonly meet with three or four ranges of 

 intermediate cells before coming to those of males ; the 

 first ranges of which participate in some measure in the 

 irregularity of the former. 



But it is upon the construction of the bottoms of the 

 intermediate ranges of cells that this variation of their 

 architecture chiefly hinges. The bottoms of the regular 

 cells of bees are, as you are aware, composed of three 

 equal-sized rhomboidal pieces ; and the base of a cell on 

 one side of the comb is composed of portions of the bases 

 of three cells on the other; but the bottoms of the inter- 

 mediate cells in question (though their orifices are per- 

 fectly hexagonal) are composed of four pieces, of which 

 two are hexagonal and two rhomboidal ; and each, in- 

 stead of corresponding with three cells on the opposite 

 side, corresponds \viihfour. The size and the shape of 

 the four pieces composing the bottom, vary ; and these 

 intermediate cells, a little larger than the third part of 

 the three opposite cells, comprise in their contour a por- 

 tion of the bottom of the fourth cell. Just below the last 

 range of cells with regular pyramidal bottoms, are found 

 cells with bottoms of four pieces, of which three are very 

 large, and one very small, and this last is a rhomb. The 

 two rhombs of the transition cells are separated by a con- 

 siderable interval ; but the two hexagonal pieces are ad- 

 jacent and perfectly alike. A cell lower, we perceive that 



