324 



THE INSECT WOBLD. 



of which it forms a part. It takes between its legs one of the 

 flakes of wax adhering to the rings of its abdomen, kneads it 

 with its mandibles, moistens it with its saliva, and gives it the 

 appearance of a soft filament, which it sticks on to a projecting 

 point of the ^eo _ Io-4his_JrstJayer it adds others, till it has 



exhausted all its wax. Then it le ves its post, and returns to the 

 fields' ; another worker, another mas|on, as they are sometimes called, 



> of the foundations. Presently 

 L from the roof. It is in these 

 eir mandibles, hollow out, and 

 >rkers continue to prolong the 

 st cells are being shaped, new 

 r rough hewn, and the work 

 advances with a marvellous rapidit 



Each (cell forms a small hexagonal cup, closed on one side only 

 by a pyramidal base, produced by the meeting together of four 

 rhombs. ] The honeycombs are th result of two layers of cells 

 placed back to back, arranged in such a way that the bases of the 

 one befeome the bases of the other, the base of each little cell 

 being forkied by the union of the jbases of three opposite cells. 

 The bees begin by form- , h >ase of the cell ; they then add 



the six sydes, or walls, which are to complete the hexagonal cup. 

 At the B&LW> time, others set to woijk on the opposite side of the 

 comb, and construct little cells back to back with the cells of the 

 front surfkce. They do not finish them off at once. The walls 

 are at first ^^ery thick : new_workers, who succeed those who 

 merely mark out the work, being occupied in planing down the 

 rough-hewn cells, and in reducing the walls to the desired thick- 

 ness. This work is accomplished with an incredible celerity, for 

 the bees can build as many as four thousand cells in twenty-four 

 hours. There is a very good reason for the hexagonal form being 

 adopted by the bees in constructing their cells, as it involves a 

 question of economy, which these insects have solved in their most 

 admirable manner. 



" When one has well examined," says Reaumur,* " the true 

 shape of each cell, when one has studied their arrangement, 



" Memoires pour servir a 1'IIistoire des Insectes," vol. v., p. 379. 



