BEES AND WASPS — ARCHITECTUKE. 177 



It was really curious to note in cases of difl&culty, as when 

 two pieces of comb met at an angle, how often the bees would 

 pull down and rebuild in different ways the same cell, some- 

 times recurring to a shape which they had at first rejected.^ 



Again, Huber saw a bee building upon the wax which 

 had already been put together by her comrades. But she 

 did not arrange it properly, or in a way to continue the 

 design of her predecessors, so that her building made an 

 undesirable corner with theirs. ' Another bee perceived 

 it, pulled down the bad work before our eyes, and gave 

 it to the first in the requisite order, so that it might 

 exactly follow the original direction.' Similarly, to quote 

 Biichner, — 



All the cells have not the same shape, as would be the case 

 if the bees in building worked according to a perfectly instinctive 

 and unchangeable plan. There are very manifold changes and 

 irregularities. Almost in every comb irregular and unfinished 

 cells are to be found, especially where the several divisions of a 

 <iomb come together. The small architects do not begin their 

 comb from a single centre, but begin building from many differ- 

 ent points, so as to progi'ess as rapidly as possible, and so that 

 the gi'eatest number may work simultaneously ; they therefore 

 build from above downwards, in the shape of flat truncated 

 cones or hanging pyramids, and these several portions are after- 

 wards united together during the winter buUding. At these 

 lines of junction it is impossible to avoid irregular cells between 

 the pressed together or unnaturally lengthened ones. The 

 same is tnie more or less of the passage cells, which are made 

 to unite the large cells of the so-called drone wax with the 

 smaller ones of the working bees, and which are generally 

 placed in two or three rows. The cells also which they usually 

 build from the combs to the glass walls of their hives, in order 

 to hold them up, show somewhat irregular forms. Finally, in 

 places where special conditions of the situation do not other- 

 wise permit, it may be observed that the bees, far from clinging 

 obstinately to their plan, very well understand how to accom- 

 modate themselves to circumstancces not only in cell-building, 

 but also in making their combs. F. Huber tried to mislead 

 their instinct, or rather to put to the proof their reason and 

 cleverness in every possible way, but they always emerged tri- 

 umphant from the ordeal. For instance, he put bees in a hive 



* Origin of Species, p. 225 



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