322 



PART V- WORKING STAGE. 



parallel layer then, if planes of intersection between the several spheres 

 in both layers be formed, there will result a double layer of hexagonal 

 prisms united together by pyramidal bases formed of three rhombs; 

 and the rhombs and the sides of the hexagonal prisms will have every 

 angle identically the same with the best measurements which have been 

 made of the cells of the hive-bee. But I hear from Prof. Wyman, who 

 has made numerous careful measurements, that the accuracy of the 

 workmanship of the bee has been greatly exaggerated; so much so, 

 that, whatever the typical form of the cell may be, it is rarely, if ever, 

 realised. 



"Hence we may safely conclude that, if we could slightly modify the 

 instincts already possessed by the Melipona, and in themselves not very 

 wonderful, this bee would make a structure as wonderfully perfect as 

 that of the hive-bee. We must suppose the Melipona to have the power 

 of forming her cells truly spherical, and of equal sizes; and this would 

 not be very surprising, seeing that she already does so to a certain ex- 

 tent, and seeing what perfectly cylindrical burrows many insects make 

 in wood, apparently by turning round on a fixed point. We must suppose 

 the Melipona to arrange her cells in level layers, as she already does her 

 cylindrical cells; and we must further suppose, and this is the greatest 

 difficulty, that she can somehow judge accurately at what distance to 

 stand from her fellow-labourers when several are making their spheres; 

 but she is already so far enabled to judge of distance that she always 

 describes her spheres so as to intersect to a certain extent, and then she 

 unites the points of intersection by perfectly flat surfaces. By such modi- 

 fications of instincts which in themselves are not very wonderful hardly 

 more wonderful than those which guide a bird to make its nest I be- 

 lieve that the hive-bee has acquired, through natural selection, her in- 

 imitable architectural powers. 



"But this theory can be tested by experiment. Following the example 

 of Mr. Tegetmeier, I separated two combs and put between them a long, 

 thick, rectangular strip of wax: the bees instantly began to excavate minute 

 circular pits in it; and as they deepened these little pits, they made them 

 wider and wider until they were converted into shallow basins, appearing 

 to the eye perfectly true or parts of a sphere, and of about the diameter 

 of a cell. It was most interesting to observe that wherever several bees 

 had begun to excavate these basins near together, they had begun their 

 work at such a distance from each other, that by the time the basins had 

 acquired the above stated width (i.e., about the width of an ordinary cell), 

 and were in depth about one sixth of the diameter of the sphere of which 

 they formed a part, the rims of the basins intersected or broke into each 

 other. As soon as this occurred, the bees ceased to excavate, and began 

 to build up flat walls of wax on the lines of intersection between the 

 basins, so that each hexagonal prism was built upon the scalloped edge of 

 a smooth basin, instead of on the straight edges of a three-sided pyramid 

 as in the case of ordinary cells. 



"I then put into the hive, instead of a thick, rectangular piece of wax, 

 a thin and narrow, knife-edged ridge, coloured with vermilion. The bees 

 instantly began on both sides to excavate little basins near to each other, 

 in the same way as before; but the ridge of wax was so thin, that the 

 bottoms of the basins, if they had been excavated to the same depth as 

 in the former experiment, would have broken into each other from the 

 opposite sides. The bees, however, did not suffer this to happen, and they 

 stopped their excavations in due time; so that the basins, as soon as they 

 had been a little deepened, came to have flat bases; and these flat bases, 

 formed by thin little plates of the vermilion wax leftungnawed, were situated, 

 as far as the eye could judge, exactly along the planes of imaginary inter- 

 section between the basins on the opposite sides of the ridge of wax. 

 In some parts, only small portions, in other parts, large portions of a 

 rhombic plate were thus left between the opposed basins, but the work, 

 from the unnatural state of things, had not been neatly performed. The 



