xviii. THE HONEY BEE. 255 



for a time at least, we merely enlarge the area of the 

 transparent patch. The thin film of soap yields at this 

 point, and the stress of the blade falls on the thicker and 

 less-yielding edges. Some such mechanical yielding of the 

 wax may guide the bee in her work. 



Do not suppose, kind reader, that I would hereby reduce 

 the whole function of cell-making to a matter of mere 

 blind mechanism. I have far too high an opinion of the 

 bee to cast such a slur on her intelligence. And the size 

 of the cells is in any case determined by no mere me- 

 chanical principles. Nor is the size invariable. For the 

 worker-brood, cells about one-fifth of an inch in diameter 

 with a considerable margin of -variation, are constructed ; 

 for the drones and for honey-storage, larger cells about 

 one-fourth of an inch in diameter are made ; where the 

 absence of mutual pressure prevents the establishment of 

 the hexagonal interference figure, rounded contours are 

 found ; between contiguous groups of these cells, transi- 

 tional cells of more or less irregular contour are inter- 

 polated ; while the royal cells for the future queen-mothers 

 are irregularly rounded in form and constructed with lavish 

 expenditure of costly wax. 



For the wax of which these cells are made is a product 

 of the vital activity of the bee. It is no mere extraneous 

 substance which needs only to be collected for use ; it is 

 a bit of individual organic home-manufacture. If you 

 examine the under-surface of a cell-building worker, you 

 will find beneath the abdomen four pairs of white plates 

 projecting from as many pockets in the encasing rings of 

 this part of the body. These are the wax-plates, made 

 from the life-blood of the worker, who must be abundantly 

 supplied with honey or saccharine matter. Examine now 

 with a lens one of the hinder legs. You will find that 

 the stoutest joints are very square-shouldered at the hinge, 



