Hillside. I / 1 



with each other. It has been shown quite recently that 

 many different kinds of ants possess special stridulating 

 organs of the greatest delicacy and articulated with the 

 greatest perfection, by means of which they can produce a 

 considerable variety of sounds, although how far they can 

 modulate them is an open question. These organs consist of 

 a special apparatus, which is placed on the hind margin of 

 the second abdominal segment, and which is scraped over a 



FIG. 35. HONEY-COMB wixu FULL AND EMPTY QUEES CELLS. 



series of delicately raised and perfectly regular lines on the 

 middle of the back of the third segment, a perfect co-adapta- 

 tion existing between the two sets of organs. 



Probably bees rank next to ants in point of intelligence. 

 The wonderful structure of the cells of which the comb is 

 composed, the almost mathematical precision with which 

 they are formed, the ability of the bee to make them of such 

 a shape that they shall hold the maximum amount of honey 

 whilst requiring the minimum amount of wax, all point to. 

 instinct in the very highest condition of development, and 

 yet capable of very simple explanation. Natural selection 

 has taught the bees, when commencing their cells, to sweep 



