INSTINCT 871 



"base of a single cell on one side of the comb enter into 

 the composition of the bases of three adjoining cells 

 on the opposite side. In the series between the extreme 

 perfection of the cells of the hive-bee and the simplicity 

 of those of the humble-bee we have the cells of the 

 Mexican Melipona domestica, carefully described and 

 figured by Pierre Huber. The Melipona itself is inter- 

 mediate in structure between the hive and humble-bee, 

 but more nearly related to the latter; it forms a nearly 

 regular waxen comb of cylindrical cells, in which the 

 young are hatched, and, in addition, some large cells of 

 wax for holding honey. These latter cells are nearly 

 spherical and of nearly equal sizes, and are aggregated 

 into an irregular mass. But the important point to notice 

 is that these cells are always made at that degree of 

 nearness to each other that they would have intersected 

 or broken into each other if the spheres had been com- 

 pleted; but this is never permitted, the bees building 

 perfectly fiat walls of wax between the spheres which 

 thus tend to intersect. Hence, each cell consists of an 

 outer spherical portion, and of two, three, or more fiat 

 surfaces, according as the cell adjoins two, three, or more 

 other cells. When one cell rests on three other cells, 

 which, from the spheres being nearly of the same size, 

 is very frequently and necessarily the case, the three flat 

 surfaces are united into a pyramid; and this pyramid, as 

 Haber has remarked, is manifestly a gross imitation of 

 the three sided pyramidal base of the cell of the hive- 

 bee. As in the cells of the hive-bee, so here, the three 

 plane surfaces in any one cell necessarily enter into the 

 construction of three adjoining cells. It is obvious that 

 the Melipona saves wax, and, what is more important, 



