224 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL AND GAZETTE. 



upon the cells of tlie otlicr 'face of the comb, 

 that bees at lenglh succeed in giving greater 

 dimensions to their cells ; and the graduation 

 of the transition cells bfing reciprocal on the 

 two facesofthe comb, it follows thaton both sides 

 each hexagonal contour corresponds with four 

 cells. When the bees have arrived at any degree 

 of this mode of operating,they can stopthere and 

 continue to employ it in several consecutive 

 ranges of cells ; but it is to the intermediate de- 

 gree that they appear to confine themselves for 

 the longest period, and we then find a great 

 numberof cells of which the bottoms of four 

 pieces are perfectly regular. They might, then, 

 construct the whole comb on this plan if their 

 object were not to revert to the pyramidal form 

 with which they set out. In building the 

 male cells, the bees begin their foundation with 

 a block or mass of wax thicker and higher than 

 that employed for the cells of workers, without 

 which it would be impracticable for them to pre- 

 serve the same order and symmetry in working 

 on a larger scale. 



Irregularities (to use the language of Huber, 

 from which the above details are abstracted) 

 have often been observed in the cells of bees. 

 Keaumur, Bonnet, and other naturalists, cite 

 them as so many examples of imperfections. 

 "What would have been their astonishment if 

 they had been aware that part of these anoma- 

 lies are calculated; that there exists, as it were, 

 a movable harmony in the mechanism by which 

 the cells are composed ? If, in consequence of 

 the imperfection of their organs, or of their 

 instruments, bees occasionally constructed some 

 of their cells unequal, or of parts badly put to- 

 gether, it would still manifest some talent to 

 be able to repair these defects, and to compen- 

 sate one irregularity by another ; but it is far 

 more astonishing that they know how to quit 

 their ordinary routine when circumstances re- 

 quire that they should build male cells; that 

 they should be instructed to vary the dimen- 

 sions and the shape of each piece so as to 

 return to a regular order ; and that, after hav- 

 ing constructed thirty or forty ranges of male 

 cells, they again leave the regular order on 

 which these were formed, and arrive by suc- 

 cessive dimunitions at the point from which 

 tliey set out. How should these insects be able 

 to extricate themselves from such a difficulty — 

 from such a complicated structure ? how pass 

 from the little to the great, from a regular plan 

 to an irregular one, and again resume the 

 former ? These are questions which no known 

 system can explain. 



It is observed by Mr. P. Huber, in his appen- 

 dix to the account of his father's discoveries 

 relative to the architecture of bees, that in gen- 

 eral the form of the prism or tubes of the cells 

 is more essential than that of their bottoms, 

 since the tetrahedral-bottomed transition cells, 

 and even those cells which being built imme- 

 diately upon wood or glass were entirely with- 

 out bottoms, still preserved their usual shape of 

 hexagonal prisms. But a remarkable experiment 

 of the elder Huber shows that bees can alter even 

 the form of their cells when circumstances re- 

 quire it, and that in a way which one would 

 not hfvve expected. 



Having placed in front of a comb which the 

 bees were constructing a slip of glass, they 

 seemed immediately aware that it would be 

 very difficult to attach it to so slippery a surface ; 

 and instead of continuing the comb in a straight 

 line, they berit it at a right-angle, so us to extend 

 beyond the slip of glass and ultimately fixed it 

 in an adjoining part of the wood-work of the 

 hive which the.glass did not cover. This de- 

 viation, if the comb had been a mere simple 

 and uniform mass of wax, would have evinced 

 no small ingenuity ; but you will bear in mind 

 that a comb consists on each side, or face, of 

 cells having between them bottoms in common ; 

 and if you take a comb, and, having softened 

 the wax by heat, endeavor to bend it in any 

 part at a right angle, you will then comprehend 

 the difficulties which our little architects had 

 to encounter. The resources of their instinct, 

 however, were adequate to the emergency. 

 They made the cells on the convex side of the 

 bent part of the comb much larger, and those 

 on the concave side much smaller than usual ; 

 the former having three or four times the diam- 

 eter of the latter. But this was not all. As the 

 bottoms of the small and large cells were as 

 usual common to both, the cells were not reg- 

 ular prisms, but the small ones considerably 

 wider at the bottom than at the top, and con- 

 versely in the large ones. What conception 

 can we form of so wonderful a flexibility of 

 instinct ? How, as Huber asks, can we com- 

 prehend the mode in which such a crowd of 

 laborers, occupied at the same time on the edge 

 of the comb, could agree to give to it the same 

 curvature from one extremity to the other ; or 

 how could they arrange tqgether to construct 

 on one face cells so small, while on the other 

 they imparted to them such enlarged dimen- 

 sions ? And how can we feel adequate aston- 

 ishment that they should have the art of making 

 cells of such different sizes correspond ? 



After this long but I flatter myself not wholly 

 uninteresting enumeration, you will scarcely 

 hesitate to admit that insects, and of these the 

 bee preeminently, are endowed with a much 

 more exquisite and flexible instinct than the 

 larger animals. But you may be here led to 

 ask, Can all this be referred to instinct ? Is not 

 this pliability to circumstances— this surprising- 

 adaptation of means fcr accomplishing an end — 

 rather the result of reason? 



You will not doubt my allowing the appos- 

 iteness of this question, when I frankly tell you 

 that so strikingly do many of the preceding 

 facts seem at first 'view the eff"ect of reason, that 

 in my original sketch of the letter you are now 

 reading, I had arranged them as ilQstances of 

 this faculty. But mature consideration has 

 convinced me (though I confess the subject has 

 great difficulties) that this rule was fallacious ; 

 and that though some circumstances connected 

 with these facts may be referable to reason, the 

 facts themselves can only be consistently ex- 

 plained by regarding them as I have here done, 

 as examples of variations of particular instincts: 

 — and this on two accounts. 



In the first place, these variations, however 

 singular, are limited in their extent: all bees 

 are, and have always been, able to avail them- 



