120 HYMEXOPTERA. 



"from the examination of numerous individuals found flying in 

 the spring after hibernation, that these could not be considered 

 as true queens, since their ovaries were only moderately devel- 

 oped, though larger than those of the workers, while in the 

 true queen, captured in the summer, the ovaries were perfectly 

 developed. This corresponds almost entirely to what we find 

 in the wasps, whose spring females have only moderately de- 

 veloped ovaries." 



How the Honey-bee builds its cells, and whether they are ex- 

 actly hexagonal, are questions that have interested the best 

 observers from Maraldi who wrote in 1712, and Reaumur, 

 whose Memoires appeared in 1740, down to the present date. 

 Their solution involves not only the closest observation of the 

 insect while at work, but also the shrewdest judgment to ex- 

 plain the facts observed and deduce a legitimate theory. Does 

 the bee intelligently plan her work out beforehand, or does she 

 follow the guidance of what is called instinct? Does she 

 construct hexagonal cells which are mathematically exact, 

 or does she vary the proportions of each cell, so that it is per- 

 fect only in its general ideal form? Again, in making the cell, 

 is the bee actually capable of making such a cell alone, or is it 

 due to the resultant action of several bees? Professor J. Wy- 

 man is of the latter opinion, as he thinks "that if left alone to 

 build a single cell, this would most probably be round. In the 

 cells of Melipona, as Huber's plate shows, they are only hex- 

 agonal when in contact with the adjoining, cells." (Proceed- 

 ings of the Boston Society of Natural History, x, p. 278, 

 1866.) 



A similar view is that proposed in 1862 by the Rev. Samuel 

 Haughton, in a paper read before the Natural History Society 

 of Dublin, where he says, according to Mr. F. Smith, that the 

 hexagonal form of the cell " may be accounted for simply by the 

 mechanical pressure of the insects against each other during 

 the formation of the cell. In consequence of the instinct that 

 compels them to work with reference to a plane, and of the 

 cylindrical form of the insect's body, the cells must be hex- 

 agonal." 



Mr. G. R. Waterhouse (Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society of London. Third series, vol. ii, p. 129, 1864) has 



