INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



395 



But it is upon the construction of the bottoms of the inter- 

 mediate ranges of cells that this variation of their architecture 

 chiefly hinges. The bottoms of the regular cells of bees are, 

 as you are aware, composed of three equal-sized rhomboidal 

 pieces ; and the base of a cell on one side of the comb is com- 

 posed of portions of the bases of three cells on the other ; but 

 the bottoms of the intermediate cells in question (though 

 their orifices are perfectly hexagonal) are composed of four 

 pieces, of which two are hexagonal and two rhomboidal ; and 

 each, instead of corresponding with three cells on the opposite 

 side, corresponds with. four. The size and the shape of the four 

 pieces composing the bottom vary ; and these intermediate 

 cells, a little larger than the third part of the three opposite 

 cells, comprise in their contour a portion of the bottom of the 

 fourth cell. Just below the last range of cells with regular 

 pyramidal bottoms are found cells with bottoms of four pieces, 

 of which three are very large, and one very small, and this 

 last is a rhomb. The two rhombs of the transition cells are 

 separated by a considerable interval ; but the two hexagonal 

 pieces are adjacent, and perfectly alike. A cell lower, we 

 perceive that the two rhombs of the bottom are not so un- 

 equal : the contour of the cell has included a greater portion 

 of the opposite fourth cell. Lastly, we find cells in pretty 

 considerable number of which the bottom is composed of 

 four pieces perfectly regular — namely, two elongated hexa- 

 gons and two equal rhombs, but smaller than those of the 

 pyramidal bottoms. In proportion as we remove our view 

 from the cells with regular tetrahedral bottoms, whether in 

 descending or from right to left, we see that the subsequent 

 cells resume their ordinary form : that is to say, that one of 

 their rhombs is gradually lessened until it finally disappears 

 entirely ; and the pyramidal form re -exhibits itself, but on a 

 larger scale than in the cells at the top of the comb. This 

 regularity is maintained in a great number of ranges, namely, 

 those consisting of male cells ; afterwards the cells diminish 

 in size, and we again remark the tetrahedral bottoms just de- 

 scribed, until the cells have once more resumed the proper 

 diameter of those of workers. 



It is, then, by encroaching in a small degree upon the cells 



