BEES AND W ASPS— ARCHITECTURE. 
177 
It was really curious to note in cases of difficulty, as when 
two pieces of comb met at an angle, how often the bees would 
pul] down and rebuild in different ways the same cell, some- 
times recurring to a shape which they had at first rejected . 1 
Again, Huber saw a bee building upon the wax which 
had already been put together by her comrades. But she 
did not arrange it properly, or in a way to continue the 
design of her predecessors, so that her building made an 
undesirable corner with theirs. 6 Another bee perceived 
it, pulled down the bad work before our eyes, and gave 
it to the first in the requisite order, so that it might 
exactly follow the original direction.’ Similarly, to quote 
Buchner, — 
All the cells have not the same shape, as would be the case 
if the bees in building worked according to a perfectly instinctive 
and unchangeable plan. There are very manifold changes and 
irregularities. Almost in every comb irregular and unfinished 
cells are to be found, especially where the several divisions of a 
comb come together. The small architects do not begin their 
comb from a single centre, but begin building from many differ- 
ent points, so as to progress as rapidly as possible, and so that 
the greatest number may work simultaneously ; they therefore 
build from above downwards, in the shape of fiat truncated 
cones or hanging pyramids, and these several portions are after- 
wards united together during the winter building. At these 
lines of junction it is impossible to avoid irregular cells between 
the pressed together or unnaturally lengthened ones. The 
same is true more or less of the passage cells, which are made 
to unite the large cells of the so-called drone wax with the 
smaller ones of the working bees, and which are generally 
placed in two or three rows. The cells also which they usually 
build from the combs to the glass walls of their hives, in order 
to hold them up, show somewhat irregular forms. Finally, in 
places where special conditions of the situation do not other- 
wise permit, it may be observed that the bees, far from clinging 
obstinately to their plan, very well understand how to accom- 
modate themselves to circumstancces not only in cell-building, 
but also in making their combs. F. Huber tried to mislead 
their instinct, or rather to put to the proof their reason and 
cleverness in every possible way, but they always emerged tri- 
umphant from the ordeal. For instance, he put bees in a hiv® 
J Origin of Species , p, 225. 
