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Show 224 INSTINCT. CHAP. VII. tageous to this speci~s to captur.e workers t~~n to procreate them-the habit of collectmg pupre originally for food might by natural selection be strengthened and rendered permanent for th? v~ry different purpos~ of raising slaves. When the Instinct was once ac~urred, if carried out to a much less extent even than In our British F. sanguinea, which, as we ~av~ see~, is less aided by its slaves than the same spem~s I~ Switz.erland, I can see no difficulty in natural selectiOn Increasing and modifying the instinct-always supposing each modifi-_ cation to be of use to the species-until an ant was formed as abjectly dependent on its slaves as is the Formica rufescens. Cell-making instinct of the Hive-Bee.-I will not here enter on minute details on this subject, but will merely give an outline of the conclusions at which I have arrived. He must be a dull man who can examine the exquisite structure of a comb, so beautifully adapted to its end, without enthusiastic admiration. We hear from mathematicians that bees have practically solved a recondite problem, and have made their cells of the proper shape to hold the greatest possible amount of honey, with the least possible consumption of precious wax in their construction. It has been remarked that a skilful workman, with fitting tools and measures, would find it very difficult to make cells of wax of the true form, though this is perfectly effected by a crowd of bees working i~ a dark hive. Grant whatev.er instincts you please, and rt seems at first quite inconceivable how they can make all the necessary angles and planes, or even perceive when they are correctly made. But the diffic~lty is ~ot nearly so great as it at first appears: all this beautrful work can be shown, I think, to follow from a few very simple instincts. CnAP. VII. CELLS OF THE HIVE-BEE. 225 I was led to investigate this subject by Mr. Waterh · ous1e , who1 h·a s shown that the form of the ce ll sta nd s Inh c £o sIeI re. ation. to the presence of adJ' O·i n.m g ce lls ; and t e o . OWI~g VIew may, perhaps, be considered only as a ~o?ification of ~is theory. Let us look to the great pnnmple of gradation, and see whether Nature does not rev.eal to us her method of work. At one end of a short senes we have humbl.e -bees ' which use the r· r ol d cocoons to hold honey, sometimes adding to them short t b f d 1 . 1 . u es o wax, an I rewlse making separate and very irregular rounded cells of wax. At the other end of th . h e senes we ave the cell~ of the hive-bee, placed in a double layer: each cell, as Is well known, is an hexagonal prism 'th tt he basal ed.g es of its six sides bevelled so as t o J·O '·Win Io n o a pyra~ud, formed of three rhombs. These rhombs h~ve certain ang!es, and the three which form the pyra- ~rdal base of a Single cell on one side of. the comb t Into the comrosi'.tI'O n of the bases of three adjoining'e cne lelsr on the ?PPOSite Side. In the series between the extreme perfectwn of the cells of the hive-bee and the simplicity of t~ose of t~e humble-bee, we have the cells of the Mexican Me~pona domestica, carefully described and fi~ed ~y Pierre Huber. The Melipona itself is intermediate m structure between the hive and humble bee but more nearly related to the latter : it forms a nearl; regular waxen comb of cylindrical cells, in which the young are ha~ched, and, in addition, sonie large cells of wahx ~or1holding honey. These latter cells are nearlv isnpt oe riCa . and of nearlY equa1 si·z es, and are aggregateJd t. an . Irregular mass. But the important point to ~o ICe, Is that these cells are always made at that . efree of nearness to each other, that they would have ~n ersected or broken into each other, if the spheres had b:_~i:ompleted; but this is never permitted, the bees g perfectly fiat walls of wax between the spheres L3 |