HYMENOPTERA. 271 



hexagonal alveoli with a pyramidal base formed of three rhombs 

 These alveoli have received the name of cells ^ and each lamina 

 that of comb. They are always perpendicular, parallel, fixed at 

 top, or by one of the edges, and separated by spaces which allow 

 the Bees to pass between them. The cells are thus placed hori- 

 zontally. Distinguished geometricians have demonstrated that 

 their form is the most economical Avith respect to the expendi- 

 ture of wax, and the most advantageous as to the extent of the 

 space contained in each cell. Bees, however, know how to 

 modify this form according to circumstances. They cvit away 

 and fit their faces piece by piece. These cells, with the excep 

 tion of tliat proper to the larva and nymph of the female, are 

 almost equal; some contain the brood, and the remainder, the 

 honey and pollen of flowers. Some of the cells containing honey 

 are open, and the remainder, or those held in reserve, are sealed 

 up with aflat or slightly convex lid. The royal cells, which 

 vary in number from two to forty, are much larger, almost 

 cylindrical, somewhat narrower at the end, and have little cavi- 

 ties on their external surface. They usually hang from the 

 margin of the combs, in the manner of stalactites, so that the 

 larvae contained in them are in a reversed position. Some of 

 them weigh as much as one hundred and fifty of the ordinary 

 cells. The cells of the males are of an intermediate size be- 

 tween those of the preceding and those of the labourers, and 

 placed here and there. Bees always continue their combs from 

 above downwards. They stop the little chinks and apertures of 

 their domicil with a species of mastich, which they collect from 

 difterent trees, called prope/<>. 



Copulation takes place in the beginning of summer out of the 

 hive, and, according to M. Huber, the female returns to it with 

 the genital organs of the male attached to the extremity of her 

 abdomen. It is thought that this single fecundation vivifies all 

 the eggs she may lay in the course of two years, and perhaps 

 during the wliole of her life. She produces the different batches 

 in rapid succession, and does not cease laying till autumn. 

 Reaumur estimates the number laid by a female in the spring, 

 during the space of twenty days, at twelve thousand. Guided 

 imerringly by her instinct, she makes no mistake in selecting their 

 appropriate cells. Sometimes, however, as where the total num- 

 ber is not sufUcient, she places several eggs in one. The la- 

 bourers subsequently make a selection. All those which she lays 

 in the ensuing spring produce labourers and are hatched in four 

 or five days. 



Bees take care to furnish their larvte with patee in quantities 

 proportioned to their age, and on Avhich they cling with their 

 bodies curved into an arc. Six or seven days after they are 

 hatched, they prepare to vmdergo their metamorphosis. Shut 

 up in their cells by the labourers, who close the orifice with a 

 convex lid, they line the parietes of their domicil with a tissue 

 of silk, spin a cocoon, become nymphs, and, at the expiration of 

 about twelve days, issue forth in their perfect state. The la» 



