49 i HABITATIONS OF IJMSECT3. 



now places itself horizontally on the vault of the hive, its 

 head corresponding to the centre of the mass or wall 

 which the wax-makers have left, and which is to form 

 the partition of the comb into two opposite assemblages 

 of cells ; and with its mandibles, rapidly moving its head, 

 it moulds in that side of the wall a cavity which is to form 

 the base of one of the cells to the diameter of which it is 

 equal. When it has worked some minutes it departs, 

 and another takes its place, deepening the cavity, height- 

 ening its lateral margins by heaping up the wax to right 

 and left by means of its teeth and fore-feet, and giving 

 them a more upright form. More than twenty bees 

 successively employ themselves in this work. When 

 arrived at a certain point, other bees begin on the yet 

 untouched and opposite side of the mass ; and com- 

 mencing the bottom of two cells, are in turn relieved by 

 others. While still engaged in this labour, the wax- 

 makers return and add to the mass, augmenting its ex- 

 tent every way, the nurse-bees again continuing their 

 operations. — After having worked the bottoms of the 

 cells of the first row into their proper forms, they polish 

 them and give them their finish, while others begin the 

 outline of a new series. 



The cells themselves, or prisms which result from the 

 re-union and meeting of the sides, are next constructed. 

 These are engrafted on the borders of the cavities hol- 

 lowed in the mass. The bees begin them bv making 

 the contour of the bottoms, which at first is unequal, of 

 equal height : thus all the margins of the cells offer an 

 uniformly level surface from their first origin, and until 

 they have acquired their proper length. The sides are 



