HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



419 



but by a 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 direc- 

 tion 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 intentions, 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 larvse of workers 

 is always 2f lines, that of those meant for the larvae 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 corresponding 

 group on both sides the comb. When the bees form male 

 cells below those of neuters, they construct many rows o£ in- 

 termediate 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 decides 

 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. 

 Sometimes, also, they have occasion to shorten the cells. 



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 above, that however large the number of bees at work on a comb, they 

 do not work simultaneously, but successively, " 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," is utterly at variance with their theory, as 

 is indeed the whole of Huber's lucid and distinct relation. 



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