[822] Huber, Recherches sur les Mœurs des Fourmis, p. 168.
[823] Stedman's Surinam, i. 169.
[824] Huber, Recherches, &c. 30-40.
[825] Huber, Recherches, &c. 45.
[826] Ibid. 53.
[827] Ibid. 61.
[828] Hawkesworth's Cook's Voyages, iii. 223.
[829] Reaum. v. 390.
[830] Father Boscovich observes, that all the angles that form the planes which compose the cell are equal, i. e. 120°: and he supposes that this equality of inclination facilitates much the construction of the cell, which may be a motive for preferring it, as well as economy. He shows that the bees do not economize the wax necessary for a flat bottom in the construction of every cell, near so much as MM. Kœnig and Reaumur thought.
MacLaurin says, that the difference of a cell with a pyramidal from one with a flat bottom, in which is comprised the economy of the bees, is equal to the fourth part of six triangles, which it would be necessary to add to the trapeziums, the faces of the cell, in order to make them right angles.