278 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



and parallel to it, and then again two more exterior to these. The combs 

 are always enlarged and lengthened in a progression proportioned to the 

 priority of their origin ; the middle comb being constantly advanced beyond 

 the two adjoining ones by some rows of cells, and they beyond those that 

 are exterior to them. Was it permitted to these insects to lay the founda- 

 tion of all their combs at the same time, they could not be placed conve- 

 niently or parallel to each other. So with respect to the cells, the first 

 cavity determines the place of all that succeed it. 



A large number of bees work at the same time on the same comb ; but 

 they are not moved to it by a simultaneous but by a successive impulse. A 

 single bee begins every partial operation, and many others in succession 

 add their efforts to hers, each appearing to act individually in a direction 

 impressed either by the workers who have preceded it, or by the 

 condition in which it finds the work. The whole population of wax-makers 

 is in a state of the most complete inaction till one bee goes forth to lay 

 the foundations of the first comb. Immediately others second her inten- 

 tions, adding to the height and length of the mass ; and when they cease 

 to act, a bee, if the term may be used, of another profession, one of the 

 nurse-bees, goes to form the draft of the first cell, in which she is succeeded 

 by others. 1 



The diameters of the cells intended for the larvae of workers is always 

 2f lines, that of those meant for the larvae of the males or drones 3 lines. 

 The male cells are generally in the middle of the combs, or in their sides, 

 rarely in their upper part. They are never insulated, but form a corre- 

 sponding group on both sides the comb. When the bees form male cells 

 below those of neuters, they construct many rows of intermediate ones, the 

 diameter of which augments progressively till it attains that of a male cell ; 

 and they observe the same method when they revert from male cells to 

 those of neuters. It appears to be the oviposition of the queen which de- 

 cides the kind of cells that are to be made : while she lays the eggs of 

 workers, no male cells are constructed ; but when she is about to lay the 

 eggs of males, the neuters appear to know it, and act accordingly. When 

 there is a very large harvest of honey, the bees increase the diameter and 

 even the length of their cells. At this time many irregular combs may be 

 seen with cells of twelve, fifteen, and even eighteen lines in length. Some- 

 times, also, they have occasion to shorten the cells. When they wish to 

 lengthen an old comb, the tubes of which have acquired their full dimen- 

 sions, they gradually diminish the thickness of its edges, gnawing down the 

 sides of the cells till it assumes the lenticular form ; they then engraft a 

 mass of wax round it, and so proceed with new cells. 



Variations, as has been already hinted, sometimes take place in the 

 position and even form of the combs. Occasionally the bees construct 



1 Some late physiologists and entomologists have contended with Buffon that 

 there is in fact nothing wonderful in the hexagonal form of the cells of bees, which 

 are at first really cylindrical (thus corresponding with the form of their bodies), but 

 forced to assume the six-sided form by the pressure on their sides of the multitude 

 of bees engaged upon them ; but surely if these authors had read Huber's work 

 with attention they must have perceived that the fact stated by him above, that 

 however large the number of bees at work on a comb, they do not work simul- 

 taneously, but successively, "each appearing to act individually in a direction im- 

 pressed either by the workers who have preceded it, or by the condition in which it 

 finds the work," is utterly at variance with' their theory 1 , as is indeed the whole of 

 Huber's lucid and distinct relation. 



