150 Insect Architecture. 



wax. They rendered them much thicker than before, and 

 fabricated a number of new connections, to unite them more 

 firmly to each other and to the sides of their dwelling. All 

 this passed in the middle of January, a time that these 

 insects commonly keep in the upper part of their hive, and 

 when work is no longer seasonable."* 



M. Huber the younger shrewdly remarks, that the ten- 

 dency to symmetry observable in the architecture of bees does 

 not hold so much in small details as in the whole work, 

 because they are sometimes obliged to adapt themselves to 

 particular localities. One irregularity leads on to another, 

 and it commonly arises from mere accident, or from design 

 on the part of the proprietor of the bees. By allowing, for 

 instance, too little interval between the spars for receiving 

 the foundation of the combs, the structure has been continued 

 in a particular direction. The bees did not at first appear to 

 be sensible of the defect, though they afterwards began to 

 suspect their error, and were then observed to change their 

 line of work till they gained the customary distance. The 

 cells having been by this change of direction in some degree 

 curved, the new ones which were commenced on each side of 

 it, by being built everywhere parallel to it, partook of the 

 same curvature. But the bees did not relish such approaches 

 to the " line of beauty," and exerted themselves to bring their 

 buildings again into the regular form. 



In consequence of several irregularities which they wished 

 to correct, the younger Huber has seen bees depart from 

 their usual practice, and at once lay on a spar two foundation- 

 walls not in the same line. They could consequently neither 

 be enlarged without obstructing both, nor from their position 

 could the edges unite, had they been prolonged. The little 

 architects, however, had recourse to a very ingenious con- 

 trivance : they curved the edges of the two combs, and 

 brought them to unite so neatly that they could be both 

 prolonged in the same line with ease ; and when carried to 

 some little distance, their surface became quite uniform and 

 level. 



* Huber on Bees, p. 416. 



