392 



INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



because they never construct combs of old wax, and they had 

 not then an opportunity of procuring new : at a more favour- 

 able season they would not have hesitated to build a new 

 comb upon the old one ; but it being inexpedient at that pe- 

 riod to expend their provision of honey in the elaboration of 

 wax, they provided for the stability of the fallen comb by an- 

 other process. They furnished themselves with wax from 

 the other combs, by gnawing away the rims of the cells more 

 elongated than the rest, and then betook themselves in crowds, 

 some upon the edges of the fallen comb, others between its 

 sides and those of the adjoining combs ; and there securely 

 fixed it, by constructing several ties of different shapes between 

 it and the glass of the hive : some were pillars, others but- 

 tresses, and others beams artfully disposed and adapted to the 

 localities of the surfaces joined. Nor did they content them- 

 selves with repairing the accidents which their masonry had 

 experienced ; they provided against those which might happen, 

 and appeared to profit by the warning given by the fall of one 

 of the combs to consolidate the others, and prevent a second ac- 

 cident of the same nature. These last had not been displaced, 

 and appeared solidly attached by their base ; whence Huber 

 was not a little surprised to see the bees strengthen their prin- 

 cipal points of connection by making them much thicker than 

 before with old wax, and forming numerous ties and braces to 

 unite them more closely to each other and to the walls of their 

 habitation. What was still more extraordinary, all this hap- 

 pened in the middle of January, at a period when the bees 

 ordinarily cluster at the top of the hive, and do not engage in 

 labours of this kind. 1 



You will admit, I think, that these proofs of the resources 

 of the architectural instinct of bees are truly admirable. If, 

 in the case of the substitution ,of mitys for the first range of 

 waxen cells, this procedure invariably took place in every bee- 

 hive at a fixed period — when, for example, the combs are 

 two thirds filled with honey — it would be less surprising ; 

 but there is nothing of this invariable character about it. It 

 does not, as Huber expressly informs us 2 , occur at any 



i Huber, ii. 280. 



2 Ibid. ii. 284. note*. 



