278 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 
and parallel to it, and then again two more exterior to these. The combs 
are always enlarged and lengthened in a progression proportioned to the 
priority of their origin ; the middle comb being constantly advanced beyond 
the two adjoining ones by some rows of cells, and they beyond those that 
are exterior to them. Was it permitted to these insects to lay the founda- 
tion of all their combs at the same time, they could not be placed. conye- 
niently or parallel to each other. So with respect to the cells, the first 
cavity determines the place of all that succeed it. 
A large number of bees work at the same time on the same comb ; but 
they are not moved to it by a simultaneous but bya successive impulse, A 
single bee begins every partial operation, and many others in succession 
add their efforts to hers, each appearing to act individually in a direction 
impressed either by the workers who have preceded it, or by the 
condition in which it finds the work. The whole population of wax-makers 
is in a state of the most complete inaction till one bee goes forth to lay 
the foundations of the first comb. Immediately others second her inten- 
tions, adding to the height and length of the mass; and when they cease 
to act, a bee, if the term may be used, of another profession, one of the 
nurse-bees, goes to form the draft of the first cell, in which she is succeeded 
by others,’ 
The diameters of the cells intended for the larvae of workers is always 
22 lines, that of those meant for the larve of the males or drones 3} lines. 
The male cells are generally in the middle of the combs, or in their sides, 
rarely in their upper part. They are never insulated, but form a corre 
sponding group on both sides the comb. When the bees form male cells 
below those of neuters, they construct many rows of intermediate ones, the 
diameter of which augments progressively till it attains that of a male cell ; 
and they observe the same method when they revert from male cells to 
those of neuters. It appears to be the oviposition of the queen which de- 
cides the kind of cells that are to be made: while she lays the eggs of 
workers, no male cells are constructed ; but when she is about to lay the 
eggs of males, the neuters appear to know it, and act accordingly. When 
there is a very large harvest of honey, the bees increase the diameter and 
even the length of their cells. At this time many irregular combs may be 
seen with cells of twelve, fifteen, and even eighteen lines in length. Some= 
times, also, they have occasion to shorten the cells. When they wish to 
lengthen an old comb, the tubes of which have acquired their full dimen- 
sions, they gradually diminish the thickness of its edges, gnawing down the 
sides of the cells till it assumes the lenticular form; they then engraft a 
mass of wax round it, and so proceed with new cells. 
Variations, as has been already hinted, sometimes take place in the 
position and even form of the combs. Occasionally the bees construct 
1 Some late physiologists and entomologists have contended with Buffon that 
there is in fact nothing wonderful in the hexagonal form of the cells of bees, which 
are at first really cylindrical (thus corresponding with the form of their bodies), but 
forced to assume the six-sided form by the pressure on their sides of the multitude 
of bees engaged upon them; but surely if these authors had read Huber’s work 
with attention they must have perceived that the fact stated by him aboye, that 
however large the number of bees at work on a comb, they do not work simul- 
taneously, but successively, “ each appearing to act. individually in a direction im- 
pressed either by the workers who have preceded it, or by the condition in which it 
finds the work,” is utterly at variance with their theory, as is indeed the whole of 
Huber’s lucid and distinct relation, ; 
