224 SPECIAL INSTINCTS. Chap. VII, 



further suppose lliat tlie community lived tlirou;^h the winter, 

 and consequently required a store of honey; there can in this 

 case be no doubt that it would be an advantage to our imagi- 

 nary humble-bee, if a slight modification in her instincts led 

 her to make her waxen cells near together, so as to intci*sect ;•- 

 little ; for a wall in common even to two adjoining cells would 

 save some little labor and wax. Hence it would continually 

 be more and more advantageous to our humble-bees, if they 

 were to make their cells more and more regular, nearer to- 

 gether, and aggregated into a mass, like the cells of the Jleli- 

 ])ona ; for in this case a large part of the bounding surface of 

 each cell would serve to bound the adjoining cells, and much 

 labor and wax Avould bo saved. Again, from the same cause, 

 it Avould be advantageous to the Melipona, if she were to 

 make her cells closer together, and more regular in every way 

 than at present ; for then, as we have seen, the sjiherical sm- 

 faces would wholly disappear and be replaced by plane sur- 

 faces ; and the Melipona Avould make a comb as perfect as that 

 of the hive-bee. Beyond this stage of perfection in architect- 

 ure, natural selection could not lead ; for the comb of the hive- 

 bee, as far as we can see, is absolutely perfect in economizing 

 labor and wax. 



Thus, as I believe, the most v.'onderful of all known in- 

 stincts, that of the hive-bee, can be explained by natural selec- 

 tion having taken advantsige of numerous, successive, sUght 

 modifications of simpler instincts; natural selection having, by 

 slow degrees, more and more perfectly led the bees to sweej) 

 etjual spheres at a given distance from each other in a double 

 layer, and to build up and excavate the wax along the planes 

 of intersection ; the bees, of course, no more knowing that 

 they swept their spheres at one particular distance from each 

 other, than they know what are the several angles of the 

 hexagonal prisms and of tlie basal rhombic plates ; the motive 

 jiower of tlie process of natural selection having been the con- 

 struction of cells of due strength and of the proper size and 

 shape for tlie larv.o?, this being etlected Avith the greatest pos- 

 sible economy of labor and Avax ; that individual swarm which 

 thus made tlie best cells with least lalior, and least waste of 

 honey in tlie secretion of wax, having succeeded best, and liav- 

 ing transmitted by inheritance their newly-acquired economical 

 instincts to new swarms, which in their turn will have had tho 

 best chance of succeeding in the struggle for existence. 



