WAX-WORKERS 147 



commencement of operations. Then a bee begins 

 to excavate in it the foundation of a cell. She 

 works for a time, and then goes off, another worker 

 taking her place immediately and working for a 

 spell. No one bee, therefore, completes a cell, 

 but each is built up by a number of workers doing 

 a little in succession. When the bottom begins 

 to take form, other bees work at a corresponding 

 cell on the other side of the wax wall. It will 

 be seen that these three lozenge-shaped plates 

 constituting the bottom of the cell have each two 

 free margins — six in all — and it is by building up 

 the walls from these margins that the hexagonal 

 form of the cell is arrived at. As the work of the 

 builders proceeds, the workers who are making 

 wax come and go, leaving additional contributions 

 of wax for the builders to manipulate. 



There is a difference in the size of the cells 

 according to the use to which they are to be put. 

 Some of the earlier observers, noticing this dis- 

 crepancy in size, regarded it as a defect in the 

 calculations of the bees. As a matter of fact the 

 difference is deliberately designed. The cells in- 

 tended as cradles for worker grubs have a diameter 

 of one- fifth of an inch ; those for males or drones are 

 a quarter of an inch ; the royal cells for the pro- 

 duction of future queens are different altogether 

 from these, much larger and of different form, 

 jutting out from the comb and taking a downward 

 direction. They are somewhat pear-shaped, and 

 about five times larger than the drone cells. There 



