HABITS AND INTELLIGENCE OF BEES 133 



have emerged, the empty cocoons are used for the 

 storage of honey, and it is only when storage room 

 of this sort is not available, that the bees display 

 their rude attempts at the art of cell-building in 

 forming rough waxen cups to hold the surplus 

 honey. These last are the only cells which the 

 humble-bee actually builds, and in their structure 

 it is not possible to trace even the rudiments of 

 the wax-economizing art of the hive-bee. 



In tracing the development of the highly finished 

 work of the hive-bee from such a rude beginning as 

 this, it is only necessary to remember how vitally 

 important to bees is the art of economizing wax. 

 It has been shown that the secretion of one pound 

 of that costly material necessitates the consumption 

 by the bees of from fifteen to twenty pounds of 

 honey. It is easy to see, therefore, what an immense 

 advantage it must have been to those colonies 

 which long ago devised expedients for saving this 

 precious material, and so were able to store up for 

 winter use the large amount of honey which would 

 otherwise have been consumed in its production. 

 The advantage soon told in competition with other 

 colonies, and so the progress was continued until 

 the limit has been reached ; for at the present time, 

 in the structure of the honeycomb, perfection has 

 been attained, there being simply no room for 

 further progress. 



The question to what extent bees possess the 

 power of communication with each other has en- 

 gaged the attention of many observers. Experi- 

 ments with bees, and also with ants, have thrown 

 some light on this subject. It has been shown that 

 the ants of a colony recognized each other even after 



