INSTINCT 229 



the comb has to be built over one face of the slip — in this case the 

 bees can lay the foundations of one wall of a new hexagon, in its 

 strictly proper place, projecting beyond the other completed cells. 

 It suffices that the bees should be enabled to stand at their proper 

 relative distances from each other and from the walls of the last 

 completed cells, and then, by striking imaginary spheres, they can 

 build up a wall intermediate between two adjoining spheres; but 

 as far as I have seen, they never gnaw away and finish off the an- 

 gles of a cell till a large part both of that cell and of the adjoining 

 cells has been built. This capacity in bees of laying down under 

 certain circumstances a rough wall in its proper place between 

 two just commenced cells, is important, as it bears on a fact, 

 which seems at first subversive of the foregoing theory; namely, 

 that the cells on the extreme margin of wasp-combs are sometimes 

 strictly hexagonal; but I have not space here to enter on this 

 subject. Nor does there seem to me any great difficulty in a single 

 insect (as in the case of a queen-wasp) making hexagonal cells, 

 if she were to work alternately on the inside and outside of two or 

 three cells commenced at the same time, always standing at the 

 proper relative distance from the parts of the cells just begun, 

 sweeping spheres or cylinders, and building up intermediate 

 planes. 



As natural selection acts only by the accumulation of slight 

 modifications of structure or instinct, each profitable to the in- 

 dividual under its conditions of life, it may reasonably be asked, 

 how a long and graduated succession of modified architectural in- 

 stincts, all tending toward the present perfect plan of construction, 

 could have profited the progenitors of the hive-bee? I think the 

 answer is not difficult: cells constructed like those of the bee or 

 the wasp gain in strength, and save much in labor and space, and 

 in the materials of which they are constructed. With respect to the 

 formation of wax, it is known that bees are often hard pressed to 

 get sufficient nectar, and I am informed by Mr. Tegetmeier that 

 it has been experimentally proved that from twelve to fifteen 

 pounds of dry sugar are consumed by a hive of bees for the secre- 

 tion of a pound of wax ; so that a prodigious quantity of fluid nec- 

 tar must be collected and consumed by the bees in a hive for the 

 secretion of the wax necessary for the construction of their combs. 

 Moreover, many bees have to remain idle for many days during 

 the process of secretion. A large store of honey is indispensable to 

 support a large stock of bees during the winter; and the security 

 of the hive is known mainly to depend on a large number of bees 

 being supported. Hence the saving of wax by largely saving honey, 



