96 THE BUILDING OF BEES. 



without any useless spaces between them. These are the equi- 

 lateral triangle, the square, and the regular hexagon. It is well 

 known to mathematicians, that there is not a fourth way possible 

 in which a plane may be cut into little spaces that shall be equal, 

 similar, and regular, without leaving any interstices." 



An equilateral triangle would have been impossible for 

 an insect with a round body to build. A circle seems to be 

 the best shape for the development of the larviE ; but such 

 a figure would have caused a needless sacrifice of space, 

 materials, and strength. The body of the immature insect, 

 as it undergoes its changes, is charged with a superabun- 

 dance of moisture, which passes off through the reticulated 

 cover of its cell ; may not a hexagon, therefore, while ap- 

 proaching so nearly to the shape of a circle, as not to 

 incommode the young bee, furnish, in its six corners, the 

 necessary vacancies for a more thorough ventilation ? 



Is it credible that these little insects can unite so many 

 requisites in the construction of their cells? 



213. The fact is that the hexagonal shape of the cells is 

 naturally produced, and wihout any calculation, by the bee. 

 She wants to build each cell round ; but as every cell 

 touches the next ones, and as she does not wish to leave any 

 space between, each one of the cells flattens at the contact, 

 as would soap bubbles if all of the same diameter. It is the 

 same for the lozenges of the bottom. The bee, wanting the 

 bottom of the cell concave inside, makes it, naturally, con- 

 vex outside. As this convexity projects on the opposite 

 side of the median line, the bee who builds the opposite 

 cells begins, naturally, on the tip of the convexity, the 

 walls of cells just begun, since she wants also to make their 

 bottom concave. The final result is that one-third of the 

 bottom of each of three cells makes the bottom of the one 

 cell opposite, and each one of the lozenges is flattened, so 

 as not to encroach on the opposite cells. 



214. The cells are not horizontal, but inclined from the 



