128 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



whole subservient to each other. It is undoubted, 

 therefore, that slight irregularities on the front will 

 affect the form of the cells on the back of the comb *." 

 When they have in this manner worked the bot- 

 tom of the first row of cells into the required forms, 

 some of the nurse-bees finish them by imparting a 

 sort of polish, while others proceed to cut out the 

 rudiments of a second row from the fresh wall of 

 wax which has been built in the meanwhile by the 

 wax-workers, and also on the opposite side of this 

 wall ; for a comb of cells is always double, being 

 arranged in two layers, placed end to end. The cells 

 of this second row are engrafted on the borders of 

 cavities hollowed out in the wall, being founded by 

 the nurse-bees, bringing the contour of all the bot- 

 toms, which is at first unequal, to the same level ; 

 and this level is kept uniform in the margins of the 

 cells till they are completed. At first sight, nothing 

 appears more simple, than adding wax to the mar- 

 gins; but from the inequalities occasioned by the 

 shape of the bottom, the bees must accumulate wax 

 on the depressions, in order to bring them to a level. 

 It follows accordingly that the surface of a new 

 comb is not quite flat, there being a progressive slope 

 produced as the work proceeds, and the comb being 

 therefore in the form of a lens, the thickness decreasing 

 towards the edge, and the last formed cells being 

 shallower or shorter than those preceding them. So 

 long as there is room for the enlargement of the 

 comb, this thinning of its edge may be remarked ; 

 but as soon as the space within the hive prevents its 

 enlargement, the cells are made equal, and two flat 

 and level surfaces are produced. 



M. Huber observed, that while sketching the 

 bottom of a cell, before there was any upright mar- 

 gin on the reverse, their pressure on the still soft 

 * Huber on Bees, p. 3C8. 



