126 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



shaped lozenges. I may here remark, that each part 

 of the labour of bees appears the natural result of 

 what has preceded it ; therefore, chance has no share 

 in these admirable combinations. 



" A foundation wall rose above the. slip like a 

 minute vertical partition, five or six lines long, two 

 lines high, but only half a line in thickness; the edge 

 circular, and the surface rough. Quitting the cluster 

 among the combs, a nurse-bee mounted the slip, 

 turned around the block, and visiting both sides, 

 began to work actively in the middle. It removed 

 as much wax with its teeth as might equal the 

 diameter of a common cell; and after kneading and 

 moistening the particles, deposited them on the edge 

 of the excavation. This insect, having laboured 

 some seconds, retired, and was soon replaced by 

 another; a third continued the work, raising the 

 margin of the edges, now projecting from the cavity, 

 and with assistance of its teeth and feet fixing the 

 particles, so as to give these edges a straighter form. 

 More than twenty bees successively participated in 

 the same work ; and when the cavity was little above 

 a line and a half in height, though equalling a cell in 

 width, a bee left the swarm, and after encircling the 

 block, commenced its operations on the opposite face, 

 where yet untouched. But its teeth acting only on 

 one half of this side, the hollow which it formed was 

 opposite to only one of the slight prominences bor- 

 dering the first cavity. Nearly at the same time 

 another worker began on the right of the face that 

 had been untouched, wherein both were occupied in 

 forming cavities, which may be designed the second 

 and third ; and they also were replaced by substi- 

 tutes. These two latter cavities were separated only 

 by the common margin, framed of particles of wax 

 withdrawn from them; which margin corresponded 

 with the centre of the cavity on the opposite surface. 



