The Life of the Bee 



suits can be due to chance alone, or to the 

 mere force of circumstance. The wasps, 

 for instance, also build combs with hex- 

 agonal cells, so that for them the problem 

 was identical, and they have solved it in a 

 far less ingenious fashion. Their combs 

 have only one layer of cells, thus lacking 

 the common base that serves the bees for 

 their two opposite layers. The wasps' 

 comb, therefore, is not only less regular, 

 but also less substantial ; and so waste- 

 fully constructed that, besides loss of ma- 

 terial, they must sacrifice about a third of 

 the available space and a quarter of the 

 energy they put forth. Again, we find that 

 the trigonse and meliponae, which are veri- 

 table and domesticated bees, though of less 

 advanced civilisation, erect only one row 

 of rearing-cells, and support their horizon- 

 tal, superposed combs on shapeless and 

 costly columns of wax. Their provision- 

 cells are merely great pots, gathered to- 

 '95 



