Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/114

110. They first form a ring of wax around the inside of the mouth of the cell; to this first ring, additional ones are applied as the increased deposit of honey renders necessary, till at last the opening is completely sealed up by a succession of concentric rings. Besides the cells of workers and males, we find, during the swarming season, other cells, to the number of six, eight, ten, or twelve, differing altogether from those first mentioned. These are the royal cells, the cradles of the infant queens. (Pl. VI. fig. 1, e, e.) They are found always on the edges of the combs, of such particularly as extend but halfway across the interior. These cells are constructed not entirely of wax, Mr. Hunter thinks, but of a mixture of that substance with farina. Their position is almost vertical, and somewhat resembling a hanging acorn; their dimensions about one inch in length, and 3½ lines in diameter. "Their oblong cylindrical form, smoothly polished within, and covered externally with a kind of fret-work, gives them the resemblance of a suspended stalactite, and announces a particular destination. In fact, the imposing appearance of this cradle, and the profusion of materials expended on it, which is such, that one of them outweighs 100 common cells, point it out as destined for receiving and rearing the most important personage of the colony—the mother and queen." In the architectural operations of bees, the modus operandi has been minutely detailed in the writings of Huber. His observations and experiments on this