Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

368 ARCHITECTURE OF BEES.
relation, or a mutual connection of the parts, f
rendering the whole subservient to each I
other. It is undoubted, therefore, that slight j>
irregularities on the front will affect the 1
form of the cells on the back of the comb.
Second row of cells.—The bottoms of \
the first row of cells, composed of two tra¬
peziums and a rhomb, we observed to be
larger than those of the cells opposed to
them, as these consisted of two trapeziums |
only.* The space between the edge of these i
back cells and the edge of the block, ad¬
mitted the bottom of a common cell, fig.
42; but there was not room for a complete
bottom above those in front, as the block
rose no higher than r, fig. 43. Several bees
employed themselves in sketching the bottom
of a new cell, in the unwrought portion of
the reverse, fig, 42, proceeding in the follow¬
ing manner.
They first excavated a vertical fluting,
f m b p, in the space comprised between
the oblique margins f c, b c, of two neigh¬
bouring cells, fig. 44, and produced mar¬
gins, by accumulating to right and left
* The unlearned reader may be apprized that trapezium
here merely signifies a four-sided figure, and rhomb, a