Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/508

492 stretched iu all its parts without any interval in any part. The whole of each cell was one entire piece of film going all round the prism and all through the pyramid without any breach, section, or joining ; neither maceration nor even boiling in turpentine, ether, or caustic potash had any effect on the film. A film of the same substance, transparent but consider ably thicker, was found to line the queen-cells, assuming the pear or flask-like shape of the wax, and a very remark able fact was observed. The film was not always in the inside ; it sometimes lay imbedded in the wax, at least a layer of wax was laid over it of sensible thickness, indeed considerably thicker than some plates of the common cell, and sometimes much thicker. As a queen-cell is never used but once, never more than a single film can be found in it. How this lining is formed has never been satis factorily determined, but it must be in one of two ways, either by the larva forming a cocoon round itself and of an oblong figure inside, sufficient to contain it when it changes its position from a coil perpendicular to the axis of the cell into an oblong worm placed in the axis, or by the larva lining the walls of the cell. In the former case the cocoon, originally made somewhat of the shape of the larva, must afterwards be applied by it or by the chrysalis so as to line and adhere to the walls ; in the latter case the walls are lined at first by the act of weaving or spinning. But there are difficulties attending both these hypotheses and the inferences to which they lead inferences in either case as extraordinary, to say the least, as anything observed in the economy of the bee. If the cocoon is formed loose and round, then, when the transformation takes place, the pupa must press against every part of the cell, so as to apply the film all round and equally in every part. The extraordinary part is the perfect adaptation of the cocoon to the cell. There is no wrinkle whatever. It fits exactly in every part, both the planes and the dihedral angles and the trihedral angles. The extreme fineness of the texture may facilitate its fitting so many different shapes. But how is the size sufficient and not more than sufficient in any one place ? If we only consider what extreme complexity and difficulty there would be in forming a cocoon which should increase at every hair s breadth, and increase in a ratio varying at different points, and should, on reaching its maximum size, continue after wards stationary in dimensions we shall be convinced how insuperable the difficulties of the workmanship would be to any artist ever so expert or careful. But even this is not all, for as the web is to be afterwards by the sup position applied to the circumscribed walls, the extent of the curved surface of the cocoon inscribed must be less than that of the surface which it is afterwards to line if that curve is wholly concave to the axis, in other words, if it have no points of contrary flexure. In order, therefore, that it may be exactly equal to the walls which it is to fit exactly, the cocoon must be of a form wholly different from that of the larva that made it. It must be convex at some points and concave at others to the larva ; it must be loose and baggy, and the progress of its bagging or being loose must vary at every point in order that when applied to the walls it may exactly fit them at every part. The performance of such a work by the larva appears scarcely conceivable. Astonishing as the known and ascertained works of the perfect insect are, this would surpass them in a proportion that might almost be called infinite. If we adopt the second inference, we get rid entirely of the former difficulty ; for the operation of forming the film upon the walls is certainly much more easy. With the utmost nicety and precision, there is never a break to be found, and there is no part thicker than the rest, so that but one layer is applied everywhere ; and the larva knows so ac curately where it has begun as always to leave off on coming round to that point without ever going again over the same ground for half a hair s breadth. The material is also very remarkable. A very high magnifying power shows no threads or separate pieces of any kind ; in the great bulk of the texture, it is for the most part solid and perfectly transparent. There are interspersed irregularly a few fibres, but it should seem as if the whole was a mucilage spread over the walls rather than any webs of woven threads. But though the difficulties attending the other theory are not found in this, it has difficulties of a different kind and equally startling. The first that strikes us immediately is the use of the cocoon formed on the waxen walls. The cell was already made, and of the required form and dimensions, in which the larva could be lodged and grow and undergo its transformations. How was the lining it with the film to assist the process 1 If the cocoon had been of another form and wrapt round the larva, it might have served some such purpose of covering or support ; but here the cocoon exactly fits the cell and in nowise alters its form, arid only by an exceedingly small portion its capacity. And how are the second and subsequent cocoons to be accounted for 1 The cell had been already completely lined with the film, and the additional lining could add nothing to the advantage, whatever it was, which the first lining gave the larva and chrysalis. (See Brougham s Works, vol. vi. pp. 312-364.)

Such is the general outline of the architectural labours D of the bee. A number of modifications are, however, met kir with, adapting them to various purposes and to new cir- cel cumstances. The cells are required to be of different sizes for the nurture of different sorts of larvoe. The smallest, which are also the most numerous, are appropriated to the larvas of the working bees ; a larger sort receive those of the males ; and a small number of very large cells are destined for the education of the young queens, and are therefore called royal cells. The first set are generally five and one-third lines in depth, and two and a half in diameter ; the second are from seven to seven and a half lines in depth, and three and three-fourths in diameter ; while the royal cells are above one inch deep, one-third of an inch wide, and their walls are much thicker than those of any other cells. Other cells, again, are set apart as magazines of honey or of pollen ; they are made deeper than the common cells, sometimes as deep as two inches, and their axes are inclined to the horizon, so that their mouths are in the highest part, that their liquid contents may be more easily retained. When these are filled they are closed up by the bees with a wall of wax, and opened only when necessity requires.

The regularity of the cells is often disturbed in consequence of the admixture of rows of larger cells with those of smaller dimensions ; but the pyramidal partitions are adapted by successive gradations to these changes, so that in many rows of what may be called cells of transition, the bottom presents four planes instead of three, two being trapeziums, and the other two irregular hexagons. These irregiilarities are met with chiefly in the combs most distant from the central one. When an abundant supply of honey induces the bees to lay up a large quantity in store, they build up for this purpose the walls of common cells, so as to give them a greater depth. The royal cells are often raised from the ruins of a number of other cells, which are destroyed to make room for them ; they are usually built on the edge of some of the shorter combs, and often in the very centre of the hive. Sometimes there is but one ; at other times as many as sixteen have been counted in the same hive. They are formed of a mixture of propolis and wax ; their form is oblong, resembling that of a pear ; their position is always vertical, so that 