Nor
does there seem to me any great difficulty in a single insect (as in
the case of a queen-wasp) making hexagonal cells, if she work
alternately on the inside and outside of two or three cells commenced
at the same time, always standing at the proper relative distance from
the parts of the cells just begun, sweeping spheres or cylinders, and
building up intermediate planes. It is even conceivable that an insect
might, by fixing on a point at which to commence a cell, and then
moving outside, first to one point, and then to five other points, at
the proper relative distances from the central point and from each
other, strike the planes of intersection, and so make an isolated
hexagon: but I am not aware that any such case has been observed; nor
would any good be derived from a single hexagon being built, as in its
construction more materials would be required than for a cylinder.
As natural selection acts only by the accumulation of slight
modifications of structure or instinct, each profitable to the
individual under its conditions of life, it may reasonably be asked,
how a long and graduated succession of modified architectural
instincts, all tending towards the present perfect plan of
construction, could have profited the progenitors of the hive-bee? I
think the answer is not difficult: it is known that bees are often
hard pressed to get sufficient nectar; and I am informed by Mr.
Tegetmeier that it has been experimentally found that no less than
from twelve to fifteen pounds of dry sugar are consumed by a hive of
bees for the secretion of each pound of wax; so that a prodigious
quantity of fluid nectar must be collected and consumed by the bees in
a hive for the secretion of the wax necessary for the construction of
their combs.
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