544 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



the contrary, they now placed a nearly fiat lid upon these large cells, as if 

 well aware of their being occupied by a different race of inhabitants. 1 



On some occasions bees, in consequence of Huber's arrangements in the 

 interior of their habitations, have begun to build a comb nearer to the ad- 

 joining one than the usual interval ; but they soon appeared to perceive 

 their error, and corrected it by giving to the comb a gradual curvature, so 

 as to resume the ordinary distance. 2 



In another instance in which various irregularities had taken place in the 

 form of the combs, the bees, in prolonging one of them, had, contrary to 

 their usual custom, begun two separate and distinct continuations, which in 

 approaching instead of joining would have interfered with each other, had 

 not the bees, apparently foreseeing the difficulty, gradually bent their 

 edges so as to make them join with such exactness that they could after- 

 wards continue them conjointly. 3 



In constructing their combs, bees, as you have been before told, in my 

 Letter on the Habitations of Insects, form the first range of cells that by 

 which the comb is attached to the top of the hive of a different shape 

 from the rest. Each cell, instead of being hexagonal, is pentagonal, having 

 the fifth broadest side fixed to the top of the hive, whence the comb is 

 much more securely cemented to that part than if the first range of cells 

 had been of the ordinary construction. For some time after their fabrica- 

 tion the combs remain in this state ; but at a certain period the bees attack 

 the first range of cells as if in fury, gnaw away the sides without touch- 

 ing the lozenge-shaped bottoms; and, having mixed the wax with propolis, 

 they form a cement well known to the ancients under the names of Mitys, 

 Commosis, and Pissoceros, which they substitute in the place of the re- 

 moved sides of the cells, forming of it thick and massive walls and heavy 

 and shapeless pillars, which they introduce between the comb and the top 

 of the hive so as to agglutinate them firmly together. Huber, who first 

 in modern times witnessed this remarkable modification of the architecture 

 of bees, observed that not only are they careful not to touch the bottoms 

 of the cells, but that they do not remove at once the cells on both sides of 

 the comb, which in that case might fall down ; but they work alternately, 

 first on one side and then on the other, replacing the demolished cells as 

 they proceed with mitys, which firmly fixes the comb to its support. 



The object of this substitution of mitys for wax seems clear. While the 

 combs are new and only partially filled with honey, the first range of cells 

 originally established as the base and the guide for the pyramidal bottoms 

 of the subsequent ones, serves as a sufficient support for them ; but when 

 they contain a store of several pounds, the bees seem to foresee the dan- 

 ger of such a weight proving too heavy for the thin waxen walls by which 

 the combs are suspended, and providently hasten to substitute for them 

 thicker walls, and pillars of a more compact and viscid material. 



But their foresight docs not stop here. When they have sufficient wax, 

 they make their combs of such a breadth as to extend to the sides of the 

 hive, to which they cement them by constructions approaching more or 

 less to the shape of cells. But when a scarcity of wax happens before 

 they have been able to give to their combs the requisite diameter, a large 

 vacant space is left between the edges of these combs, which are only fixed 

 by their upper part, and the sides of the hive ; and they might be pulled 



i Huber, i. 233. Ibid. ii. 239. 3 Ibid. ii. 240. 



