Rev. S, Haughton on the Cells of the Wasp and Bee. 415 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XI, 



Fig. \. Acantholeberis curcirostris (Miiller), 5 . 



Fig. 2. Anterior antenna of the same species. 



Fig. 3. Portion of the terminal half of the seta attached to the first joint 

 of the lower branch of the posterior antennas; greatly magnified. 



Fig. 4. Portion of the terminal half of the seta attached to the second 

 joint of the lower branch of the posterior antennae, greatly en- 

 larged. 



Fig. 5. Abdominal claws. 



Fig. 6. Acantholeberis sordida (Lievin), ? . 



Fig. 7. Abdomen of the same species. 



Fig. 8. Setae from the ventral margin of the carapace. 



Fig. 9. Setae from the posteroventod angle of the carapace. 



XLV. — On the Form of the Cells made by various Wasps and hy 



the Honey Bee ; with an Appendix on the Origin of Species. 



By the Rev. Samuel Haughton*, Fellow of Trinity College, 



Dublin. 

 The geometrical form affected by the cells of various kinds of 

 wasps and bees has attracted the attention, and called forth the 

 speculations, of naturalists and geometers from the earliest 

 periods. By one class of writers the geometrical properties of 

 these cells have been used as proofs, not so much of the skill 

 and instinct of the insects as of the wisdom and intelligence of 

 their Creator ; whde, by the opposite class of writers, these same 

 geometrical properties of the cells are alleged as a suflficient 

 cause for the production of the insects that make them, from 

 the advantages which these forms of cells are supposed to possess 

 over other forms — advantages said to be so important as to de- 

 cide the battle of life in favour of the insects that adopt the 

 geometrical plan of making their cells. 



I have for a long time felt convinced that both parties in this 

 controversy are in error, as men generally are when they attempt 

 to speculate on the reasons for the existence of things ; and that 

 the properties of the cells are only the necessary consequence of 

 their geometrical form, which form itself is the necessary con- 

 sequence of mechanical conditions totally unconnected with 

 design, and incapable of rendering an account of the origin of 

 the insects that make the cells. 



The geometrical cell of the wasps and bees that I have had an 

 opportunity of examining may be dinded into three classes. 



1st. Hexagonal cells formed of adjoining pyramidal figufes, 

 with slightly curved axes, not terminating in a point, but in a 

 rounded extremity. 



* Read before the Natural History Society of Dublin, November 21, 

 1863. [Reprinted from a separate pamphlet by permission of the author.] 



