152 Insect Architecture 



the inconvenience which would attend any other mode of 

 building ? No less curious is the plan adopted by the bee 

 for producing an angle in the combs : the wonted fashion of 

 their work, and the dimensions of the cells, must be altered. 

 Therefore, the cells on the upper or convex side of the 

 combs are enlarged ; they are constructed of three or four 

 times the width of those on the opposite surface. How can 

 so many insects, occupied at once on the edges of the combs, 

 concur in giving them a common curvature from one extremity 

 to the other ? How do they resolve on establishing cells so 

 small on one side, while dimensions so enlarged are bestowed 

 on those of the other ? And is it not still more singular, 

 that they have the art of making a correspondence between 

 cells of such reciprocal discrepance? The bottom being 

 common to both, the tubes alone assume a taper form. 

 Perhaps no other insect has afforded a more decisive proof of 

 the resources of instinct, when compelled to deviate from the 

 ordinary course. 



"But let us study them in their natural state, and there 

 we shall find that the diameter of their cells must be adapted 

 to the individuals which shall be bred in them. The cells 

 of males have the same figure, the same number of lozenges 

 and sides, as those of workers, and angles of the same size. 

 Their diameter is 3^- lines, while those of workers are 

 only 2f. 



; ' It is rarely that the cells of males occupy the higher 

 part of the combs. They are generally in the middle or on 

 the sides, where they are not isolated. The manner in 

 which they are surrounded by other cells alone can explain 

 how the transition in size is effected. . When the cells of 

 males are to be fabricated under those of workers, the bees 

 make several rows of intermediate cells, whose diameter 

 augments progressively, until gaining that proportion proper 

 to the cells required ; and in returning to those of workers, 

 a lowering is observed in a manner corresponding. 



" Bees, in preparing the cells of males, previously esta- 

 blish a block or lump of wax on the edge of their comb, 

 thicker than is usually employed for those of workers. It is 



