262 SPECIAL INSTINCTS. 



every angle identically the same with the best measure- 

 ments which have been made of the cells of the hive-bee. 

 But 1 hear from Professor Wyman, who has made numei-- 

 oas careful measurements, that the accuracy of the work- 

 manship 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, realized. 



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 form- 

 ing her cells truly spherical, and of equal sizes; and this 

 would not be very surprising, seeing that she already does 

 so to a certain extent, and seeing what perfectly cylindri- 

 cal 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- 

 laborers 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 modifications of instincts which in 

 themselves are not very wonderful — hardly more wonderful 

 than those which guide a bird to make its nest — I believe 

 that the hive-bee has acquired, through natural selection, 

 her inimitable 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 



