THE HONEYCOMB. 



361 





THE HONEYCOMB. 



misplaced enthusiasm is fortunately going out of fashion, and we can admire what is admirable in 

 the architecture of the hive and in the wonderful polity of its inmates, without ascribing almost 

 miraculous powers to the latter. The Bee's cell is a hexagonal prism, because the insect endeavours 

 to get as many cells of proper size as possible into the space at its command ; and the hexagonal prism is 

 the form most nearly approaching a 

 cylinder, any number of which of 

 equal size may be placed side by side 

 without leaving any vacant spaces 

 between them. The cells may there- 

 fore be regarded as attempted cylin- 

 ders which have become converted 

 into six-sided prisms by what may 

 be called mutual pressure. This is 

 further evidenced by the fact that 

 the cells close to the part where the 

 comb is attached for suspension, ami 

 some of those at the junction of 

 rows of different sizes (see figure), 

 are more or less irregular in form ; 

 and also that those which occupy the 

 free edges of the comb follow the 

 prismatic form only on the side 

 turned towards the solid comb, the 

 outer surface being irregular or 

 rounded. 



The same inherited instinct that 

 prompts the Bees to build these 

 elaborate double combs also teaches them that, in order to eflect their object, namely, the produc- 

 tion of the largest number of cradles for their young, in the smallest possible space and with the 

 smallest expenditure of a valuable material, they must adopt the principle of making the cells 

 alternate on the two sides of the comb, and their adoption of this plan furnishes the explanation 

 of the whole phenomenon. The material used, as is well known, is wax, a peculiar substance 



secreted by the workers from between the segments of 

 the abdomen. When this secretion is going on, the 

 workers engaged in it cling together in numerous 

 festoons, forming a mass that has been compared to a 

 curtain, and the process may last for some four-and- 

 twenty hours. When the secretion of the wax is com- 

 pleted, it projects from between the abdominal segments 

 in the form of thin plates, which the Bees then proceed 

 to detach and make use of in comb-building. It is taken 

 in fragments into the mouth, where it undergoes a 

 process of mastication, and is probably moistened with some 

 fluid which renders it easier to work : finally it issues 

 from the mouth of the Bee in the form of a small white 

 riband. The place for the formation of a comb having been 

 selected, the wax-producing Bees build up a small plate 

 of wax, usually of a nearly semicircular form, upon the 

 line corresponding to the partition of the future comb, and this at first has no indication of cells. 

 But when the first small plate has been got together the Bees go to work upon it and dig out small 

 hollows in its substance, which they afterwards enlai'ge, working simultaneously on both sides, 

 and reducing as much as possible the thickness of the partition between them. As the Bees do not 

 work directly opposite to one another, the deepest pai't of the hollows on one side will correspond with 

 236 



TJNDER SURFACE OF REE, SHOWING THE WAX 

 BETWEEN THE SEGMENTS. 



