THE BUILDING OF THE CITY 33 



provided with a hinged lid, which could be lifted 

 up for the egg to be laid in and shut down when 

 the grub was full grown. Instead of that, these 

 lids have to be made fresh over and over again 

 during a single season. The bee-keeper may smile, 

 but it would not be any more wonderful than the 

 lid of the trap-door spider, nor anything like so 

 remarkable as the wonderful shape of the cells 

 in a honeycomb. 



Although this insect building is found amongst 

 all orders, from the queer caddis grub, which 

 builds itself a case of leaves, stones, or any other 

 material that comes handy, to the moths and 

 butterflies, who build themselves wonderful tombs 

 in which to change from grovelling worms to 

 winged spirits of air, yet the Hymenoptera is far 

 excellence the order in which this building reaches 

 a high state of perfection. The subterranean 

 cities of the ants have been the wonder-exciting 

 subject of all times, but the structures of the bee 

 and the wasp stand pre-eminent for their unique 

 design and for the outstanding feature of a special 

 material being manufactured to build them of. 



There are fundamental differences between the 

 combs of wasps and bees, analogous though the 

 two structures are. In the first place, wasps' 

 combs are made from wood pulp, chewed from 

 old posts and masticated until they form a tough 

 paper-like material. In the case of the bee, the 

 material is evolved from its own body, the " wax " 



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