Hive-Bees, 



sided figure. This arrangement, by bringing the greatest 

 number of points in contact with the interior surface, insures 

 the stability of the comb. 



It may, however, bo said not to be quite certain, that 

 Reaumur and others have not ascribed to bees the merit of 

 ingenious mathematical contrivance and selection, when the 

 construction of the cells may more probably originate in the 

 form of their mandibles and the other instruments employed 

 in their operations. In the case of other insects, wo have, 

 both in the preceding and subsequent pages of this volume, 

 repeatedly noticed, that they use their bodies, or parts there- 

 of, as the standards of measurement and modelling ; and it 



Arrangement cf Cells. 



is not impossible that bees may proceed on a similar principle. 

 M. Huber replies to this objection, that bees are not pro- 

 vided with instruments corresponding to the angles of their 

 cells ; for there is no more resemblance between these and 

 the form of their mandibles, than between the chisel of the 

 sculptor and the work which he produces. The head, he 

 thinks, does not furnish any better explanation. He admits 

 that the antennas are very flexible, so as to enable the insects 

 to follow the outline of every object; but concludes that 

 neither their structure, nor that of the limbs and mandibles, 

 are adequate to explain the form of the cells, though all these 

 are employed in the operations of building, the effect, 

 according to him, depending entirely on the object which the 

 insect proposes. 



We shall now follow M. Huber in the experiments which 



