Insect Architecture

by James Rennie

Mr. Knight, the learned and ingenious President of the Horticultural Society, discovered by accident an artificial substance, more attractive than any of the resins experimentally tried by Réaumur. Having caused the decorticated part of a tree to be covered with a cement composed of bees’-wax and turpentine, he observed that this was frequented by hive-bees, who, finding it to be a very good propolis ready made, detached it from the tree with their mandibles, and then, as usual, passed it from the first leg to the second, and so on. When one bee had thus collected its load, another often came behind and despoiled it of all it had collected; a second and a third load were frequently lost in the same manner; and yet the patient insect pursued its operations without manifesting any signs of anger.[AN] Probably the latter circumstance, at which Mr. Knight seems to have been surprised, was nothing more than an instance of the division of labour so strikingly exemplified in every part of the economy of bees.

Structure of the legs of the Bee, for carrying propolis and pollen, magnified.

It may not be out of place here to describe the apparatus with which the worker-bees are provided for the purpose of carrying the propolis as well as the pollen of flowers to the hive, and which has just been alluded to in the observations of Mr. Knight. The shin or middle portion of the hind pair of legs is actually formed into a triangular basket, admirably adapted to this design. The bottom of this basket is composed of a smooth, shining, horn-like substance, hollowed out in the substance of the limb, and surrounded with a margin of strong and thickly-set bristles. Whatever materials, therefore, may be placed by the bee in the interior of this basket, are secured from falling out by the bristles around it, whose elasticity will even allow the load to be heaped beyond their points without letting it fall.

In the case of propolis, when the bee is loading her singular basket, she first kneads the piece she has detached with her mandibles, till it becomes somewhat dry and less adhesive, as otherwise it would stick to her limbs. This preliminary process sometimes occupies nearly half an hour. She then passes it backwards by means of her feet to the cavity of her basket, giving it two or three pats to make it adhere; and when she adds a second portion to the first, she often finds it necessary to pat it still harder. When she has procured as much as the basket will conveniently hold, she flies off with it to the hive.

The Building of the Cells.

The notion commonly entertained respecting glass hives is altogether erroneous. Those who are unacquainted with bees, imagine that, by means of a glass hive, all their proceedings may be easily watched and recorded; but it is to be remembered that bees are exceedingly averse to the intrusion of light, and their first operation in such cases is to close up every chink by which light can enter to disturb them, either by clustering together, or by a plaster composed of propolis. It consequently requires considerable management and ingenuity, even with the aid of a glass hive, to see them actually at work. M. Huber employed a hive with leaves, which opened in the manner of a book; and for some purposes he used a glass box, inserted in the body of the hive, but easily brought into view by means of screws.

But no invention hitherto contrived is sufficient to obviate every difficulty. The bees are so eager to afford mutual assistance, and for this purpose so many of them crowd together in rapid succession, that the operations of individuals can seldom be traced. Though this crowding, however, appears to an observer to be not a little confused, it is all regulated with admirable order, as has been ascertained by Réaumur and other distinguished naturalists.

When bees begin to build the hive, they divide themselves into bands, one of which produces materials for the structure; another works upon these, and forms them into a rough sketch of the dimensions and partitions of the cells. All this is completed by the second band, who examine and adjust the angles, remove the superfluous wax, and give the work its necessary perfection; and a third band brings provisions to the labourers, who cannot leave their work. But no distribution of food is made to those whose charge, in collecting propolis and pollen, calls them to the field, because it is supposed they will hardly forget themselves; neither is any allowance made to those who begin the architecture of the cells. Their province is very troublesome, because they are obliged to level and extend, as well as cut and adjust the wax to the dimensions required; but then they soon obtain a dismission from this labour, and retire to the fields to regale themselves with food, and wear off their fatigue with a more agreeable employment. Those who succeed them, draw their mouth, their feet, and the extremity of their body, several times over all the work, and never desist till the whole is polished and completed; and as they frequently need refreshments, and yet are not permitted to retire, there are waiters always attending, who serve them with provisions when they require them. The labourer who has an appetite, bends down his trunk before the caterer to intimate that he has an inclination to eat, upon which the other opens his bag of honey, and pours out a few drops: these may be distinctly seen rolling through the hole of his trunk, which insensibly swells in every part the liquor flows through. When this little repast is over, the labourer returns to his work, and his body and feet repeat the same motions as before.[AO]

Before they can commence building, however, when a colony or swarm migrates from the original hive to a new situation, it is necessary first to collect propolis, with which every chink and cranny in the place where they mean to build may be carefully stopped up; and secondly, that a quantity of wax be secreted by the wax-workers to form the requisite cells. The secretion of wax, it would appear, goes on best when the bees are in a state of repose; and the wax-workers, accordingly, suspend themselves in the interior in an extended cluster, like the curtain which is composed of a series of intertwined festoons or garlands, crossing each other in all directions—the uppermost bee maintaining its position by laying hold of the roof with its fore legs, and the succeeding one by laying hold of the hind legs of the first.