Chap. VII. CELLS OF THE HIVE-BEE. 233 



menced cells, is important, as it bears on a fact, 

 which seems at first quite subversive of the foregoing 

 theory ; namely, that the cells on the extreme margin of 

 wasp-combs are sometimes strictly hexagonal ; but I 

 have not space here to enter on this subject. Nor does 

 there seem to me any great difficulty in a single insect 

 (as in the case of a queen- wasp) making hexagonal cells, 

 if she work alternately on the inside and outside of two 

 or three cells commenced at the same time, always 

 standing at the proper relative distance from the parts 

 of the cells just begun, sweeping spheres or cylinders, 

 and building up intermediate planes. It is even conceiv- 

 able that an insect might, by fixing on a point at which 

 to commence a cell, and then moving outside, first to 

 one point, and then to five other points, at the proper 

 relative distances from the central point and from each 

 other, strike the planes of intersection, and so make an 

 isolated hexagon : but I am not aware that any such 

 case has been observed ; nor would any good be derived 

 from a single hexagon being built, as in its construction 

 more materials would be required than for a cylinder. 



As natural selection acts only by the accumulation of 

 slight modifications of structure or instinct, each profit- 

 able to the individual under its conditions of life, it may 

 reasonably be asked, how a long and graduated succession 

 of modified architectural instincts, all tending towards the 

 present perfect plan of construction, could have profited 

 the progenitors of the hive-bee ? I think the answer is 

 not difficult : it is known that bees are often hard pressed 

 to get sufficient nectar ; and I am informed by Mr. 

 Tegetmeier that it has been experimentally found that 

 no less than from twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar 

 are consumed by a hive of bees for the secretion of each 

 pound of wax ; so that a prodigious quantity of fluid nectar 

 must be collected and consumed by the bees in a hive for 



