130 INSECT ARCHITECTURE, 



equal distance between the combs is of more impor- 

 tance to the welfare of the hive than might at first 

 appear; for were they too distant, the bees would be 

 so scattered and dispersed, that they could not re- 

 ciprocally communicate the heat indispensable for 

 hatching the eggs and rearing the young. If the 

 combs, on the other hand, were closer, the bees 

 could not traverse the intervals with the freedom 

 necessary to facilitate the work of the hive. On the 

 approach of winter, they sometimes elongate the 

 cells which contain honey, and thus contract the 

 intervals between the combs. But this expedient is 

 in preparation for a season when it is important to 

 have copious magazines, and when their activity 

 being relaxed, it is unnecessary for their communi- 

 cations to be so spacious and free. On the return of 

 spring, the bees hasten to contract the elongated 

 cells, that they may become fit for receiving the 

 eggs which the queen is about to deposit, and in 

 this manner they re-establish the regular distance.* 



We are indebted to the late Dr Barclay of Edin- 

 burgh, well known as an excellent anatomist, for 

 the discovery that each cell in a honeycomb is not 

 simply composed of one wall, but consists of two. 

 We shall give the account of his discovery in his oAvn 

 words : — 



" Having inquired of several naturalists whether 

 or not they knew any author who had mentioned 

 that the partitions between the cells of the honey- 

 comb were double, and whether or not they had ever 

 remarked such a structure themselves, and they hav- 

 ing answered in the negative; I now take the liberty 

 of presenting to the Society, pieces of honeycomb, 

 in which the young bees had been reared, upon 

 breaking which, it will be clearly seen that the par- 

 titions between difl^erent cells, at the sides and the 



* Huber on Bees, p. 220. 



