INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 4.89 
cumstances forces them to act in an opposite direction, 
and determines them to demolish what they have so la- 
boriously constructed ? ? 
Drones, or male bees, are more bulky than the work- 
ers; and you have been told, in speaking of the habita- 
tions of insects, that the cells which bees construct for 
rearing the larvee of the former, are larger than those 
destined for the education of the larve of the latter. The 
diameter of the cells of drones is always 32 lines (or 
twelfths of an inch); that of those of workers 22 lines: 
and these dimensions are ‘so constant in their ordinary 
cells, that some authors have thought they might be 
adopted as an universal and invariable scale of measure, 
which would have the great recommendation of being 
every where at hand, and at all events would be prefer- 
able to our barley-corns. Several ranges of male cells, 
sometimes from thirty to forty, are usually found in each 
comb, generally situated about the middle. Now as these 
cells are not isolated, but form a part of the entire comb, 
corresponding on its two faces—by what art is it that the 
bees unite hexagonal cells of a small, with others of a 
larger diameter, without leaving any void spaces, and 
without destroying the uniformity and regularity of the 
comb? This problem would puzzle an ordinary artist, 
but is easily solved by the resources of the instinct of our 
little workmen. 
When they are desirous of constructing the cells of 
males below those of workers, they form several ranges 
of intermediate or transition cells, of which the diame- 
ter augments progressively, until they have reached that 
a Huber, ii. 228. 
