THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



55 



cylinders of equal thickness are 

 formed into six-sided prisms by an 

 equal pressure. 



It appears that the procedure of 

 each single bee is exactly the same 

 as if she wished to construct a 

 hollow cylinder. In fact if we 

 give them a thick cake of wax they 

 bite, ^nd press in it round holes. 



When they work with an excess 

 of m.^.terial, as is often the case in 

 the cells of drones, each single cell 

 is a cylinder with a hemispherical 

 bottom. If, in such cells, which 

 resemble test-tubes, the excessive 

 substance is removed, the walls, 

 both of the prisms and the pyra- 

 mids,gradually take the usual form. 



On an examination of a royal 

 cell it appears, also, that the in- 

 dividual bee understands merely 

 how to construct a hollow cylinder 

 with a hemispherical depression at 

 the end. 



The fact that the bees frequently 

 and without any perceptible order 

 gnaw holes into the outer wall of 

 the thick mass of wax of a royal 

 cell which naturally turns out hem- 

 ispherical as the counter-pressure 

 on the opposite side is wanting, 

 shows that their artistic skill does 

 not take a high rank. 



When the cells are filled with 

 honey or with full-grown larvae, 

 they are hermetically closed with a 

 lid of wax. The covered cell has 

 then, as appears from numerous 

 measurements, the exact form of 

 the soap-bubbles above mentioned. 



The cells of the ^'Melipona" 

 and those of single combs, are also 

 quite similar to soap-bubbles. 



The detached "honey-pots" of 



the Melipona are globular, like a 

 freely suspended bubble. 



If two such cells touch each other 

 they become flattened at the point 

 of contact. 



Three such cells, if sufficiently 

 close together, take such a form 

 that their planes of contact inter- 

 sect each other at an angle of 120°. 



If numerous soap-bubbles of 

 equal magnitude are arranged in 

 a single plane they approach the 

 form of wasps' cells. 



The phenomena of cohesion in 

 the paper of wasps' nests differ 

 entirely from those of water and 

 of wax, and produce a dome-shaped 

 cell-bottom and cover. 



If a stratum of soap-bubbles is 

 suspended vertically, and is brought 

 in contact with a second similar 

 stratum, the form of the ordinary 

 double comb of the hive bee is 

 produced. 



The agency in the fonnation of 

 these kinds of cells is to be sought 

 not in a skilful movement of the 

 jaws of the insects but exclusively 

 in physical causes. 



These are, in the case of wax, 

 that the plastic and viscous mater- 

 ial — just as is the case in soap- 

 bubbles — gives way until a given 

 space is enclosed by a minimum of 

 surface. 



Hence planes are formed like 

 those of Plateau's equilibrium fig- 

 ures. The shape of the cells can 

 no more be sought in the bodily 

 structure of the bees than in their 

 architectural skill. 



In view of the plastic character 

 of the material, and the manifold 

 impulse to change of form connect- 



